Adam M. Smith and Scott Toussaint Write About Tariffs and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act for Financier Worldwide

Article  |  January 9, 2026

Financier Worldwide

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Writing for Financier Worldwide, partner Adam M. Smith and associate Scott Toussaint discuss a pair of cases challenging President Trump’s authority to impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The cases, they write, “raise fundamental questions about whether IEEPA, a nearly 50-year-old national security statute, authorizes President Trump to unilaterally impose hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of duties on nearly all goods entering the U.S. The court’s eventual decision in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump and Trump v. V.O.S. Selections, Inc. has been widely described as a possible landmark statement on the limits of presidential power. A less noticed facet of those two cases is that, depending upon how the Supreme Court crafts its decision, a ruling striking down President Trump’s IEEPA-based tariffs has the potential to unsettle US economic sanctions and outbound investment restrictions.”