Most Trump tariffs ruled illegal by US appeals court: media

Most of U.S. President Donald Trump's global tariffs were ruled illegal by a federal appeals court, which found Trump overstepped his presidential authority in imposing them, but the judges let the levies stay in place while sending the case back to a lower court for further proceedings, Bloomberg reported Friday.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Friday upheld an earlier ruling by the Court of International Trade that Trump wrongfully invoked an emergency law to issue the tariffs. However, the appellate judges sent the case back to the lower court to determine if it applied to everyone affected by tariffs or just the parties involved in the case, according to the report.

The ruling extends the suspense over whether Trump's tariffs will ultimately stand. The case had been expected to go to the Supreme Court for a final decision, Bloomberg said.

"Trump is all but certain to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court. The appellate court paused its ruling from taking effect until Oct. 14, in order to give the Trump administration time to ask the Supreme Court to take up the case," CNBC reported.

The Trump administration has argued that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) empowers the president to effectively impose country-specific tariffs at any level if he deems them necessary to address a national emergency, said CNBC.

A lower federal trade court in late May rejected that stance and struck down Trump's IEEPA-based tariffs, including his worldwide "reciprocal" tariffs unveiled in early April. But the Federal Circuit quickly paused that ruling while Trump's appeal played out, according to the CNBC report.

"The decision undercuts the centerpiece of his aggressive trade policy, which reshaped U.S. economic relations with much of the world," the New York Post reported Friday.