Supreme Court Denies Petition in Broad Section 232 Duty Challenge

The Supreme Court of the U.S. denied a petition for a writ of certiorari in a broad challenge to President Donald Trump's steel and aluminum tariff action under Section 232.

The petitioners, led by USP Holdings, tried to get the high court to hear their case by arguing that the report from the commerce secretary concluding a Section 232 investigation is not "purely advisory" and actually gives the president a new power to regulate trade, making it subject to review under the Administrative Procedure Act (see 2303060034). The case centered on whether the Section 232 report is final agency action under the APA and whether it's judicially reviewable under the APA.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that the report is in fact final agency action but not reviewable under the APA's "arbitrary and capricious standard (see 2206090047). The government then told the Supreme Court that the report is not reviewable given its link to national security. The steel and aluminum duties were imposed by Trump in 2018 after the commerce secretary said boosting the country's domestic steel utilization rate via the tariffs was a national security necessity.