Since declaring his “Liberation Day” tariffs on April 2, President Donald Trump has been relying on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEP) to impose — or threaten –sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs across the world.
(Note: The U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) struck down Trump’s tariffs in May, ruling that the President exceeded his authority under IEEPA, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit paused the CIT decision, keeping the tariffs in effect.)
On Thursday, Neal Katyal, former Principal Deputy Solicitor General of the United States during the first Obama administration, will argue the tariffs case “against President Donald Trump’s Executive Order,” as he says, in a “rare en banc proceeding” in a federal appeals court.
Note: Cornell Law School defines an “en banc proceeding” as a procedure where all judges of a court hear a case, especially for complex or important matters — en banc is ‘on the bench’ in French.
— Neal Katyal (@neal_katyal) July 28, 2025
While Katyal prepares for his big day in court, he shared a Washington Post op-ed written by former Republican columnist and Pulitzer Prize-winner George Will, which according to Katyal, “captures some of the stakes.”
Will’s column is titled ‘This tariff court case could rein in the rampant Trump presidency,’ with the subtitle: “Trump is a hare, and the federal courts are a tortoise. We know how that fable turned out.” In the article, Will concluded: “This tariff case could markedly restrain this rampant presidency.”
Note: Will’s disapproval of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign led him to leave the Republican party. When he left the GOP, he said, “I left it for the same reason I joined it in 1964… I’m a conservative.” Will supported Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, and Kamala Harris in 2024.
