Ross Burkhart, a professor of political science, was quoted by PolitiFact for a recent article, “Donald Trump’s tariff powers face a high-stakes legal test.” The article focuses on the July 31 hearing in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on the V.O.S. Selections, Inc. v. Trump decision by the Court of International Trade to declare illegal the Liberation Day tariffs by President Trump.
In the article, which covers several aspects of the appeal, Burkhart discusses the notion of “national emergency” contained in the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), under which the Liberation Day tariffs were declared by President Trump. He suggests that declaring trade balances and deficits with other countries as national emergencies worthy of invoking the IEEPA breaks precedent by other presidential administrations and stretches the bounds of the law.