A federal judge in Washington, D.C., sided with a Chicago-area toy company on Thursday, blocking five executive orders signed by President Donald Trump that imposed tariffs on Chinese imports.
U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras determined the International Economic Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not authorize Trump to impose the tariffs in his executive orders.
Contreras granted a motion for a preliminary injunction, filed by the toy company, Learning Resources, Inc., which will be stayed for 14 days in case the administration decides to appeal the decision.
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Trump announced his “Liberation Day” reciprocal tariff plan on April 2, imposing a 10% baseline tariff on all countries.
In certain countries, hostile negotiations led to even higher levies, with taxes on Chinese imports reaching 145%.
Rick Woldenberg, CEO of Learning Resources, said in April the third-generation family business that had been manufacturing in China for four decades would face an almost 98% increase in its tariff bill.
He said the $2.3 million the company paid in 2024 would jump to $100.2 million in 2025.
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“I wish I had $100 million,” Woldenberg wrote in a statement. “Honest to God, no exaggeration: It feels like the end of days.”
China produces 97% of America’s imported baby carriages, 96% of its artificial flowers and umbrellas, 95% of its fireworks, 93% of its children’s coloring books and 90% of its combs, according to a report from the Macquarie investment bank.
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On Wednesday, the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled the administration overstepped its authority over tariffs under IEEPA.
“The Constitution assigns Congress the exclusive powers to ‘lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises,’ and to ‘regulate Commerce with foreign Nations,’” the court wrote in its opinion. “The question in the two cases before the court is whether the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (‘IEEPA’) delegates these powers to the President in the form of authority to impose unlimited tariffs on goods from nearly every country in the world.”
Three judges, appointed by former Presidents Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama, and Trump, found IEEPA did not “confer such unbounded authority.”
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The Trump administration appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, but it is unclear what goods will be subject to tariffs in the meantime, Reuters reported.
“Foreign countries’ nonreciprocal treatment of the United States has fueled America’s historic and persistent trade deficits,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai told FOX Business after the decision. “These deficits have created a national emergency that has decimated American communities, left our workers behind, and weakened our defense industrial base — facts that the court did not dispute.”
“It is not for unelected judges to decide how to properly address a national emergency,” Desai added. “President Trump pledged to put America First, and the Administration is committed to using every lever of executive power to address this crisis and restore American Greatness.”
FOX Business’ Greg Wehner and Bill Mears, and Reuters contributed to this report.
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