A federal judge in Washington, D.C., extended a pause of his order invalidating the bulk of President Trump’s tariffs until an appeals court can resolve the case.
U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras had already agreed to put his ruling on hold for two weeks when he issued it, but Tuesday’s extension lasts indefinitely until the appeals court rules.
It’s the latest development in what has been a whirlwind week for the legal battle surrounding Trump’s tariffs. Two federal courts found Trump’s use of an emergency law to justify tariffs unlawful, but neither ruling is currently in effect.
In response to a lawsuit filed by two education businesses, Contreras on Thursday invalidated Trump’s reciprocal “Liberation Day” tariffs and those he recently imposed on China that cited fentanyl trafficking.
The ruling landed hours after the U.S. Court of International Trade blocked those tariffs and ones Trump imposed on Canada and Mexico. That ruling came in response to suits filed by another group of businesses and a coalition of Democratic-led states.
The Trump administration quickly brought the legal battle to the appeals courts and asked to immediately halt the injunctions, warning that allowing them to take effect would curtail Trump’s leverage to make trade deals with other countries.
The two appeals are taking place in separate courts.
In the case decided by the trade court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit quickly agreed to pause the ruling until the next stage of the appeal.
Contreras’s ruling heads to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which has not yet intervened. But noting the Federal Circuit’s pause, Contreras went ahead and put his decision on hold indefinitely.
“The Court acknowledged the national security and foreign policy concerns raised by Defendants but determined that those consequences would flow, if at all, from the” trade court’s order, Contreras wrote.
“That order has now been stayed by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. A stay in this action is therefore appropriate to protect the President’s ability to identify and respond to threats to the U.S. economy and national security,” Contreras, an appointee of former President Obama, continued.
The cases are just some of the legal challenges to Trump’s tariffs.
But federal judges in California, Montana and Florida have declined to consider other lawsuits filed in their courts, telling plaintiffs they instead need to bring their case before the trade court.
U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Corley, an appointee of former President Biden who serves in San Francisco, did so on Tuesday and dismissed a lawsuit filed by California and Gov. Gavin Newsom (D).