Yesterday’s ruling by the Court of International Trade, invalidating a number of the Trump tariffs on the ground that the president lacks power under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to unilaterally impose tariffs after unilaterally pronouncing emergencies, is ground-shifting. There is much more to say about it, but after all the president’s BS about how Americans won’t get hurt because the countries he imposed the duties on will pay the tariffs into the Treasury, this passage in the court’s opinion, regarding the plaintiff businesses’ standing to sue, grabbed my attention:

The businesses that bring the V.O.S. action — V.O.S. Selections [a wine and spirits importer], Genova Pipe, MicroKits, FishUSA, and Terry Cycling — allege and aver [footnote omitted] that they have suffered (and will continue to suffer) economic injuries as a result of the Worldwide and Retaliatory Tariffs. . . . V.O.S. alleges that the Worldwide and Retaliatory Tariffs have occasioned difficulties with sourcing and pricing, and also that “[t]he reduction in cash flow caused by increased tariffs also necessarily reduces the company’s inventory and the level of business that V.O.S. can conduct, leading to an overall reduction in purchase orders placed with both foreign and domestic suppliers.”. . . Its CEO avers in a declaration that “[t]ariffs must be paid by V.O.S. upon arrival at the Port of New York, putting a large, immediate, strain on its cash flow.”… Genova Pipe alleges major sourcing problems stemming from the Worldwide Tariffs, and also that “[t]he tariffs will directly increase the cost of raw materials, manufacturing equipment, and resale goods imported from abroad by Genova Pipe.”… MicroKits alleges that “[a]t the current rates” of the Worldwide and Retaliatory Tariffs it “cannot order parts from China and will have to pause operations when it runs out of parts,” and also that as a result it “will likely be unable to pay its employees, will lose money, and as a result may go out of business.”… FishUSA alleges that “[t]he tariffs have caused [it] to delay shipment of finished goods from China due to the unpredictability of the tariff rate that will be imposed when the product arrives, and [that] it has also paused production of some products,” and states that these conditions inhibit its business growth…. Terry Cycling alleges that it “has already paid $25,000 in unplanned tariffs this year for goods for which Terry was the importer of record,” and “projects that the tariffs will cost the company approximately $250,000 by the end of 2025.”