On June 10, 2025, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“Federal Circuit”) stayed the Court of International Trade’s (“CIT”) permanent injunction on the Trump Administration’s executive orders instituting tariffs pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (“IEEPA”) pending the appeal of the case. The Federal Circuit judges stated in the per curium order that “a stay is warranted under the circumstances.”
The implications of the stay are that any tariffs currently being collected on imports pursuant to the IEEPA Fentanyl (Canada, Mexico, and China) tariffs will continue to be collected by Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) at the time of entry. Similarly, any IEEPA Reciprocal tariffs on imports from all countries will continue to be collected by CBP at the time of entry.
The Federal Circuit decision does not shed light on or provide an indication as to how the court intends to rule on the merits of the appeal, but instead focused on the functionality of an injunction stating that it is trying to “balance the equities as the litigation moves forward.”
The Federal Circuit seems to understand the real-time impact on U.S. businesses and indicated that it will establish an expedited schedule with oral arguments to be heard on July 31, 2025. Furthermore, in an extremely rare move, the court said the case will move immediately to an en banc proceeding where all active judges (we believe approximately 11) will hear the case instead of the traditional three-judge panel approach, due to the “issues of exceptional importance” in the case. While the briefing schedule is yet to be set, Husch Blackwell expects that there will be a number of legal issues raised by both the parties to the appeal, as well as amici, which would include statutory construction and interpretation, delegation of Congressional authority, separation of powers, and national security, just to name a few.
The Husch Blackwell team is continuing to monitor developments and will provide additional updates as they arise.