# TESTIMONY: The Federal Circuit upholds the 10% tariff — American trade holds its breath

> On June 11, 2026, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals granted a stay of execution of the Court of International Trade (CIT) ruling that had struck down the 10% global tariff based on Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. This decision suspends the obligation to immediately refund duties collected while the appeal runs its course. For the 330,000 American importers who were cou

- Author: Maxime Marquette
- Publisher: MadMax (https://mad-max.co)
- Section: Profile
- Published: 2026-06-29
- Canonical URL: https://mad-max.co/en/article/temoignage-le-federal-circuit-maintient-le-tarif-de-10-le-commerce-americain-ret

## Introduction: an unexpected reprieve for Trump's global tariff

### June 11, 2026: the trade appeals court says no to immediate refunds

On **June 11, 2026**, the **Federal Circuit Court of Appeals** granted a **stay of execution** of the **Court of International Trade** (**CIT**) ruling that had struck down the **10% global tariff** based on **Section 122** of the **Trade Act of 1974**. This decision suspends the obligation to immediately refund duties collected while the appeal runs its course. For the **330,000 American importers** who were counting on rapid refunds, it means yet another delay — and one more layer of uncertainty in an already unstable commercial landscape.

### Why Section 122 is different from IEEPA

Unlike the **IEEPA** tariffs struck down by the **Supreme Court** in **February 2026**, the **Section 122** tariff rests on a provision of the **Trade Act of 1974** that explicitly authorizes the president to impose temporary additional duties in cases of a **serious trade deficit**. The legal ceiling is **150 days** — and this tariff was set to automatically expire around **July 24, 2026**, barring a congressional extension. That limited duration is precisely what complicates the legal landscape: the CIT had struck it down before its natural expiration, and the **Federal Circuit** concluded it deserved thorough examination before that deadline.

*There is an irony in this situation: the Section 122 tariff was probably going to expire on its own in a matter of weeks. And yet fierce judicial battles are being fought over whether it is legally valid. That is the paradox of the 2026 legal trade war: people are fighting over precedents, not immediate dollars. Precedents last. Temporary tariffs do not.*

## The CIT's ruling: why the trade court had struck it down

### The central argument: unconstitutional delegation

The **CIT** had struck down the **Section 122** tariff using the same reasoning the **Supreme Court** applied to **IEEPA**: the **non-delegation doctrine**. Under that theory, **Congress** cannot delegate such broad and loosely defined taxing authority to the executive without an **intelligible principle** guiding its exercise. The CIT concluded that **Section 122**, which allows the president to impose up to **15% in additional duties** for **150 days**, does not sufficiently define the conditions under which that power may be used.

### The difference between invalidation and suspension

By granting a **stay of execution**, the **Federal Circuit** did not rule that the CIT was wrong. It only said that the government had **"sufficiently established that it was likely to succeed on the merits"** — a legal standard far less demanding than a final victory. This is a procedural decision, not a substantive one. It keeps the tariff in effect during the appeal, prevents immediate refunds, and allows the legal debate over the constitutionality of **Section 122** to proceed before the full court.

*When a court says "you might be right, we will take a closer look," that is not a victory. It is a pause. For importers waiting on refunds, the distinction between a pause and a win has real financial consequences. For the Trump administration, it is a welcome respite in a string of commercial judicial defeats. But a respite is not a victory either.*

## The 330,000 importers: testimonies from an economy under strain

### The hardest-hit sectors

Among the **330,000 importers** who had been counting on refunds through the **CAPE** portal opened in **April 2026**, the most exposed sectors are **consumer electronics**, **textiles**, **industrial machinery**, and **chemical products**. Small and medium-sized businesses had reported compressed margins since the tariffs were imposed in **2025**, and some had factored the expected refunds into their financial projections for the **third quarter of 2026**. The **Federal Circuit's** stay pushes those projections back further.

### Planned uncertainty as a strategy

What the testimonies of entrepreneurs and CFOs collected by multiple business media outlets in **June 2026** reveal is that prolonged uncertainty is not economically neutral. It blocks investment decisions, delays orders, and forces businesses to maintain higher cash reserves instead of deploying capital. The **Federal Circuit** may have made a legally defensible decision — but its concrete economic impact on thousands of American businesses is real and measurable.

*I hear the legal arguments on the non-delegation doctrine. They are serious arguments, and I am not a constitutional scholar. But when I think about the thousands of small importers who have been waiting months for refunds that keep receding, I wonder whether our legal system has internalized the human cost of prolonged uncertainty. Perhaps not. Perhaps that should be a question judges ask themselves.*

## The July 24, 2026 deadline: a race against the clock

### The automatic expiration of the Section 122 tariff

**Section 122** limits emergency tariffs to **150 days**. The **10% global tariff** imposed by the **Trump** administration was therefore set to automatically expire around **July 24, 2026**. This raises an interesting legal question: if the tariff expires before the **Federal Circuit** issues a ruling on the merits, does the appeal become **moot**? The answer is not simple — questions of retroactive refunds would remain in play even after expiration.

### The possibility of a congressional extension

The **Trump** administration explored asking **Congress** for a legislative extension of the **Section 122** tariff beyond the **150-day** limit. Such an extension would resolve some constitutional problems by giving the tariff an explicit legislative foundation. However, an extension would require a vote in both the **Senate** and the **House of Representatives**, which is far from guaranteed in the political climate of **2026**, even with a **Republican Congress**.

*The Trump administration has one option: ask Congress to legitimate what the courts keep challenging. That would be the constitutionally sound path — and it is precisely what the Supreme Court recommended when it struck down the IEEPA tariffs. The power to tax belongs to Congress. When the executive wants to tax, it should go through Congress. That is not a bureaucratic obstacle. That is democracy.*

## The IEEPA precedent and its influence on Section 122

### Similar legal logic

The **Supreme Court** had struck down the **IEEPA** tariffs in **February 2026** on the grounds that the president does not hold implicit authority to impose commercial taxes without an explicit congressional delegation. The same reasoning can apply to **Section 122**: even if Congress explicitly provided for this power, the question is whether the limits it imposed (duration, magnitude, conditions) are specific enough to constitute a constitutionally valid delegation. Both cases raise related questions about the limits of legislative delegation.

### Why the Federal Circuit may reason differently from the Supreme Court

Unlike **IEEPA**, whose taxing authority was drawn **implicitly** from the text of the statute, **Section 122** **explicitly** mentions the possibility of imposing additional duties. That more direct textual anchor is the government's central argument before the **Federal Circuit**. The court could conclude that this anchor is sufficient to satisfy constitutional requirements — even if the debate over the **non-delegation doctrine** remains open following the Supreme Court's recent decisions.

*The non-delegation doctrine is one of the most technical and least accessible areas of American constitutional law. But its practical reach is immense: if courts apply it strictly, entire swaths of American trade policy — not just Trump's tariffs — could be invalidated. It is a double-edged weapon that even Trump's opponents should handle with care.*

## Consequences for American trade policy

### A fragmented and contested tariff landscape

In **June 2026**, American trade policy looks like a landscape of simultaneous judicial wars: the **IEEPA** tariffs struck down and subject to partial refund, the **Section 122** tariff kept alive by a Federal Circuit stay pending appeal, the **Section 301** tariffs on **China** maintained after the Supreme Court declined to hear the case, and the **Section 232** tariffs on steel and aluminum maintained with modifications. Businesses must navigate this fragmented terrain with no visibility on what will still be legally valid in six months.

### The impact on American competitiveness

Economists consulted by several media outlets in **June 2026** noted that judicial uncertainty over tariffs has effects at least as destabilizing for business decisions as the tariffs themselves. Companies that had reorganized their supply chains to accommodate the **IEEPA** tariffs now face their removal. Those that maintained Asian partnerships while awaiting the elimination of **Section 301** tariffs were disappointed. This instability creates what economists call a **"political risk premium"** in investment decisions.

*I am not an economist. But I understand what prolonged uncertainty means for people who run real businesses. When the rules change every six months — by decree, by court order, by policy reversal — you cannot plan. And when you cannot plan, you do not invest. And when you do not invest, the economy slows. The legal trade war has concrete victims.*

## The actors in the litigation: who are the challengers?

### Industry associations and individual importers

The **CIT** litigation was brought by a consortium of industry associations and importers who challenged the **Section 122** tariff from the moment it was imposed. Among the plaintiffs are companies in the **electronics**, **apparel**, and **industrial machinery** sectors. These parties have direct financial interests in the outcome: the duties collected since the tariff was imposed represent significant sums their members want to recover through retroactive refunds if the tariff is definitively invalidated.

### The government's role in defending the tariff

On the government's side, the **DOJ** and the **US Trade Representative** (**USTR**) coordinated the defense of the **Section 122** tariff before the **Federal Circuit**. Their central argument is that **Section 122** of the **Trade Act of 1974**, by explicitly authorizing temporary emergency tariffs, provides a sufficient legislative basis to avoid the **non-delegation** problems that sank the **IEEPA** tariffs. The outcome of that argument will determine not only the fate of this tariff but also the future scope of presidential trade power.

*When industry associations are suing their own government's tariffs in trade courts, it is a sign that something went fundamentally wrong in the ordinary political consultation process. Healthy trade policy is built with industry, not against it. What this series of lawsuits reflects is the decision-making isolation of an administration that prefers executive orders to negotiations.*

## The non-delegation doctrine: a double-edged weapon

### A doctrine in resurgence under the current Court

The **non-delegation doctrine** — the idea that **Congress** cannot delegate unlimited legislative powers to the executive — had been largely dormant for decades before being revived by the **Roberts Court**. Its resurgence in the **2026** tariff cases is directly linked to the **Supreme Court's** decisions in related matters like **Loper Bright** in **2024**. If the **Federal Circuit** applies this doctrine to **Section 122**, it would create a precedent potentially devastating for decades of American trade policy built on presidential delegations.

### What this means for future presidents

The reach of the **non-delegation doctrine** extends far beyond the **Trump** administration. Democratic presidents have also used congressionally delegated trade powers to impose sanctions, sector-specific tariffs, or embargoes. If courts systematically tighten the requirements for explicit delegation, future presidents — of whatever political stripe — will have to return to **Congress** for every significant trade measure. Some constitutional scholars consider that healthy. Others see it as institutional paralysis.

*I am not opposed to the idea that Congress reclaims its trade prerogatives. In theory, it is constitutionally correct and democratically desirable. In practice, a Congress that must vote on every trade tariff would be paralyzed in the current political climate. There is a real tension between constitutional purity and governmental effectiveness. I have no simple answer — only a preference for transparency in that debate.*

## Conclusion: July 24 as a date with uncertainty

### What we are waiting for

Between now and **July 24, 2026**, two main scenarios emerge: either the **Federal Circuit** issues a swift ruling on the merits before the tariff expires, or the tariff expires on its own and the substantive question becomes largely moot — except for refunds on duties already collected. In either scenario, the battle over the constitutionality of **Section 122** is not over: parties could petition the **Supreme Court**, which has already shown its interest in these delegation questions.

### A signal for the future of trade policy

What this legal saga reveals is that trade policy by presidential decree is now systematically challenged in the courts. The era in which a president could impose sweeping tariffs without the courts taking notice is over. Whether that is seen as a healthy institutional development or as an obstacle to trade policy depends on the observer — but it is a new reality that any future administration will have to account for.

*I look at this chapter of American trade and I see one thing: the usefulness of judicial institutions as a counterweight to executive discretionary power. Whether Trump was right or wrong on tariffs is an economic and political question. Whether the courts have the right to examine it is a constitutional question. And on that question, I am convinced: yes, they have that right. And they exercised it.*

**By Maxime Marquette, columnist**

## Columnist's transparency note

### Editorial stance

I am not a journalist but a **columnist and analyst**. My expertise lies in observing and analysing the geopolitical, economic and strategic dynamics that shape our world. My work is to take political strategies apart, to understand global economic movements, to put the decisions of international actors in context and to offer analytical perspectives on the changes that are redefining our societies.

I do not claim the cold objectivity of traditional journalism, which stops at reporting facts. **I claim analytical clarity**, rigorous interpretation and a deep understanding of the complex issues that concern us all. My role is to give meaning to the facts, to place them in their historical and strategic context, and to offer a critical reading of events.

### Method and sources

This text keeps the basic distinction between **verified facts and interpretive analysis**. The rule never changes: a factual claim is published only when a verifiable source supports it, and the sources this article actually used are listed under **Sources**, never here.

**Primary source families** used by the publication, when the story has them: official statements from governments and international institutions, public statements by political leaders, reports from intergovernmental organisations, dispatches from recognised international news agencies.

**Secondary source families**: specialised publications, internationally recognised news media, analyses from established research institutions, reports from industry organisations.

When an article cites statistical, economic or geopolitical data, it comes from the institutions that produce it (intergovernmental organisations, central banks, national statistics offices), and the exact institution is named under **Sources**.

### Nature of the analysis

The analyses, interpretations and perspectives in the analytical sections of this article are a **critical, contextual synthesis** based on the information available, the trends observed and the expert comments cited in the sources consulted.

My role is to interpret these facts, to set them in the context of today's geopolitical and economic dynamics, and to give them a coherent meaning within the larger story of the changes shaping our time. These analyses reflect expertise built through continuous observation of international affairs and an understanding of the strategic mechanisms that drive global actors.

This article describes a documented state of affairs on its publication date, not a prediction: later developments may shift its outlook. No update is promised in advance; when an article is corrected or completed, the change is dated in the text.

## Sources

### Primary sources

- [Reason / Volokh Conspiracy — Federal Circuit stays Section 122 tariffs ruling — June 11, 2026](https://reason.com/volokh/2026/06/11/federal-circuit-stays-enforcement-of-ruling-against-trumps-section-122-tariffs/)

- [US News — Appeals court extends block on ruling against 10% global tariff — June 11, 2026](https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2026-06-11/us-appeals-court-extends-block-on-ruling-against-trumps-10-global-tariff)

- [Federal Circuit Blog — Recent news, Federal Circuit — June 16, 2026](https://fedcircuitblog.com/2026/06/16/recent-news-on-the-federal-circuit-580/)

### Secondary sources

- [935 The Lloyd — US appeals court extends block on 10% tariff ruling — June 11, 2026](https://935thelloyd.com/2026/06/11/us-appeals-court-extends-block-on-ruling-against-trumps-10-global-tariff/)

- [WND — Federal court hands win to Trump in tariff war — June 11, 2026](https://www.wnd.com/2026/06/federal-court-hands-win-trump-administration-war-tariffs/)

- [Ground News — Trump administration asks court to pause tariff ruling — 2026](https://ground.news/article/trump-administration-asks-us-court-to-pause-ruling-against-tariffs)

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Source: Maxime Marquette, MadMax. When citing, name the author and link https://mad-max.co/en/article/temoignage-le-federal-circuit-maintient-le-tarif-de-10-le-commerce-americain-ret