Devin Sikes Quoted by Bloomberg Law on Steel Importers’ Legal Challenge to Trump Tariffs

Akin Gump international trade counsel Devin Sikes has been quoted by Bloomberg Law in “Steel Group’s Tariff Fight Goes on After High Court Setback,” on court challenges by steel users to the Trump administration’s 25 percent tariffs on steel.

On June 24, according to the article, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an expedited challenge to the tariffs by the American Institute for International Steel (AIIS). Sikes noted that the justices have been very reluctant to grant review in the absence of an appeals court decision.

AIIS will present its case before the Federal Circuit, where, Sikes noted, it will try to differentiate its case from the 1976 Supreme Court decision in Federal Energy Administration v. Algonquin SNG Inc., where the Court found constitutional the Trade Expansion Act, whose Section 232 Trump used to slap duties on imports after the Commerce Dept. found the imports to threaten national security.

Sikes noted that the Court’s June 20 ruling in Gundy v. United States showed an interest by several Justices in revisiting the nondelegation doctrine, the principle that Congress cannot transfer its power to legislate to another of the government’s branches. He said that, were the Justices to decide the steel case is a good vehicle to revive nondelegation, that would improve its chances for Court review. As to Algonquin and its impact on the steel case, Sikes said that some Justices have shown themselves less inclined to be bound by precedent, while, on the topic of Section 232’s national security component, he said that the Court, historically, has deferred to executive branches determination on national security.