Donald Trump has, as I noted in a recent Daily Mail column, not only escaped for now the worst economic and strategic consequences of launching a Global War on Trade, but even struck some trade deals that showed major trading partners (especially the European Union) to be too weak to call his bluff. He’s benefited in good part from his own willingness to flexibly backing off his worst ideas.

But Trump isn’t out of the woods yet. He’s still threatening to bring some of the “liberation day” tariffs back. The largely legally sound decision of the Court of International Trade to find that Trump exceeded the authority Congress granted the executive under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA) is currently on appeal to the Federal Circuit. In late June, the Supreme Court declined to get immediately involved, but the Federal Circuit appeal was argued last week, and Fox News reports: “In interviews with Fox News Digital, longtime trade lawyers and lawyers who argued on behalf of plaintiffs in court last week said they expect the ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in a matter of ‘weeks,’ or sometime in August or September — in line with the court’s agreement to hear the case on an ‘expedited’ basis.” That could swiftly put the issue back in the Supreme Court’s crosshairs, especially if the administration loses the appeal.