Loading summary
A
Ten years from today, Lisa Schneider will trade in her office job to become the leader of a pack of dogs as the owner of her own dog rescue. That is a second act made possible by the reskilling courses Lisa's taking now with AARP to help make sure her income lives as long as she does, and she can finally run with the big dogs and the small dogs who just think they're big dogs. That's why the younger you are, the more you need AARP. Learn more at aarp.org skills high interest.
B
Debt is one of the toughest opponents you'll face unless you power up with a SoFi personal loan. A SOFI personal loan could repackage your bad debt into one low fixed rate monthly payment. It's even got super speed since you could get the funds as soon as the same day you sign. Visit sofi.compower to learn more. That's S-O-Fi.com p o w E R Loans originated by SOFI bank and a member FDIC. Terms and conditions apply.
A
MLS 696891 Summer fun goes great with family freedom from T Mobile we'll pay off four phones up to $3200 and give you four free phones all on America's largest 5G network. Visit your local T Mobile location or learn more@t mobile.com FamilyFreedom up to $800 per line via virtual prepaid card typically takes 15 days. Free phones via 24 monthly bill credits with finance agreement eg Apple iPhone16128 gigabyte 8 $29.99 Eligible trade in eg iPhone 11 Pro for well qualified credits end and balance due if you pay off early or cancel contact T mobile phone.
B
Well don't worry about Donald Trump's tariffs much longer because an 11 judge panel today of the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals I believe is about to strike them down. And when they strike them down, that means he's not going to be doing any more deals, he's not going to be collecting any more money, he's not going to be imposing any more sanctions. And our allies like Brazil at 50% in order to help people like another coup leading president named Bolsonaro. He's not going to be able to go after China and all that money, all that 50 $60 billion that came into the US treasury all goes back, some of which may actually go back to his Commerce Secretary's family business cuz they're betting against the tariffs too. 11 judges and none of them appointed by Donald Trump. I'm going to report on it right here. We had an oral argument for two hours today in D.C. on two cases related to the attack on Donald Trump's tariffs. And I can tell you with reasonable certainty, although if I'm wrong, I'll come back and tell you that he's not gonna win. It may go up to the United States Supreme Court. We'll talk about that next as well. You're here on the Midas Touch Network, you're with Michael Popak. And let's get down to the intersection of law, politics and tariffs. And we get to this moment. A couple of months ago, there were a couple of appeals, a couple of cases, one went up to the Court of International Trade, a little understood, little known specialty court sits in New York. And a three judge panel heard argument as to whether Donald Trump has the power under a 1977 emergency economic statute, we call it the International Emergency Economic Powers act, also called ipa. Whether he had the power under IPA to do something that the Constitution says is reserved for Congress, impose tariffs. Couple little problems pointed out today in the 11th judge panel. There's not one mention of tariffs as a power under ipa. The there's sanctions. You wanna sanction a foreign country because of a national security concern. This statute came out of the 1977 Carter era. You wanna do that? You know, we're getting screwed with by OPEC about oil. It's causing a recession. We need to fire back. You can use a fill in the blank sanction. Not a tariff, not a reciprocal tariff, not a let's just charge everybody a 16% toll on the highway of commerce tariff. Not that in fact, as one judge, Judge Reyna, Jimmy Reyna today pointed out among the 11 judges during oral argument where he fired on the DOJ lawyer Brett Shumate trotted out to represent the Department of Justice, he said, show me where I got time. Show me where. In the entirety of the IPA statute there's a mention of the word tariff being a power of a president. And of course the answer is there isn't any. And now then they focused on emergency. How is this an emergency? Because in order to even use. Even if you could use a tariff as a sanction, which is beyond questionable, you have to be able to properly invoke the power. Donald Trump loves emergencies. Right. The Alien Enemies act, we're under attack by Venezuela. Put everybody in jail without habeas corpus rights or due process. Get them out of the country and you can't review what I do. Same thing here. Emergency. Unusual economic circumstance combined with an emergency I get to use my powers and you court can't review me, let alone have any types of checks and balance. And Judge Dyke, who was appointed by Clinton, said, you know, we have a little thing called the major questions doctrine, which says that if Congress wants to totally turn over a power or throw out an entire section of the United States Code, its statute book about trade and tariffs, just toss it and give it over to the president under an emergency, you'd think they'd express that clearly. And they haven't done that because that seems to be a major question. So since they haven't done that, to adopt your interpretation, Mr. Shumati, for the, for the United States of America and Donald Trump would mean we just toss out the entire trade system and scheme that Congress put in place off of its Article 1 powers. Doesn't that seem unusual to you, that we would be able to do that or that it should be done? And of course, they dig in. They press the losing hand every time. What he does once the emergency is declared is beyond review. It's beyond reproach. He's infallible. I'm sorry, did we elect a pope? I didn't think we elected a Pope. I thought we elected a president every four years. But this 11 judge panel, let's talk about that panel. So the Court of International Trade a couple of months ago also 3, 0 ruled against Donald Trump. Similarly, their ruling was, yeah, this isn't an emergency. It's not unusual. You don't have the tariff power. And so all of your tariffs and all of these deals that you're making off your tariffs with Mexico, with Canada, with Brazil or not with Brazil, with a 50% new tariff that they just slapped on Brazil. But with the European Union, all these phony announcements of these aspirational, unenforceable deals, they all get torpedoed, they all get rescinded, and they all get voided. If the appeals panel deals the way I just said. You know what they don't tell you about hitting a certain age? The gray just shows up. Like an uninvited guest. I'd look in the mirror and think, when did that happen? I don't have time for salon visits or messy kits that feel like chemistry class gone wrong. I needed something quicker, cleaner, and, yeah, simpler. This podcast is sponsored by Simpler Hair Color. Simpler hair color is the easiest way to eliminate grays. Modern men deserve simpler, safer ways to care for their appearance. With simpler hair color, you've got gentler ingredients without the messy mixing or constant trips to the salon or drugstore. Like, I had an important meeting last week and I wanted to look my best, so I used simpler hair color. My grays were gone quickly with no drips and no delay. I tried the dark brown shade and it blended with my natural color perfectly. It was founded by Snehal Patel and Mitch Brown, two guys who are just done with harsh dyes and DIY disasters. Simpler hair color works for both hair and beard and one can gives you as many uses as up to four boxes of drugstore dye. And yes, it's made right here in the USA. With over 9,500 five star reviews. Say goodbye to grace the easy way with simpler hair color. Head to simplerhaircolor.com legal af and use code legal af for 15% off your order. Once again, that's simpler hair color.com legal a for 15% off and make sure you use my promo code Legal AF so they know I sent you. So the three judge panel court of appeals rules against Donald Trump, another judge, and they were handling a case brought by plaintiffs who represented small business. Another lawsuit similar brought by 12 states also got in front of a judge in the in D.C. and there's an appeal related to that. So now the Federal Circuit Court, which is a specialty appellate court, takes in appeals from places like the court, the Court of Appeals and Patent and Trademark and that kind of thing all ends up at the Federal Circuit Court. They had an en banc, all 11 judges sitting. Judges heard oral argument. There needs to be a majority decision. My God, is this going to be 9, 2, 10, 1, 11, 0? No worse than 8 to 3. The makeup of the 11 judges is eight Democrats, three Republicans, zero Trumpers. Yeah, I don't a lot of Bush appointees, Reagan appointee. Yeah, no, they're based on the hot bench today. They're not coming out of this with the tariff scheme alive. And so what will happen next? So they'll make a ruling. My guess is they'll make it in no less. It won't be in a week, maybe a month. Could be a little bit earlier. And then so we'll be in beginning of September, maybe right after Labor Day, we'll get a ruling. Now this panel, this court actually stayed the Court of International Trades decision two months ago, which destroyed the tariff scheme so that Trump couldn't collect the money. He's been collecting the money and putting it in the US treasury subject to refund over the last two months. It was like 60, $70 billion have come in. Now, as I've reported before his commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick has A family business that he sold to his sons that already bet against Donald Trump and the administration and his father and their father, because they're offering a product where, where they will buy your overpayment of refunds. Cents on the dollar, 20 cents on the dollar, 10 cents on the dollar. Will we got $10 million in overpayment because of these tariffs are going to go down in flames. We'll give you 2 million for them. Okay, I'll take the 2 million now and we'll wait on the 10 because when they get struck down, we'll cash in the complete refund. Genius. Except they're connected to the commerce Secretary. All right, so when this goes down in flames, this money will have to get refunded. So next stop, you know, and the next stop is the United States Supreme Court. It'll be another emergency application. It'll go through Chief Justice Roberts. They'll probably file. They'll ask this court to continue to stay their order to give time for an appeal. They may do that. If they don't do that, they'll ask for an emergency stay. John Roberts will then have to consider. He'll give an administrative stay, I assure you, for a day or two, a few days or a week. He'll set a briefing schedule. He'll get the two briefs in, one from the government and one or maybe two from the plaintiffs. And then he'll hold oral argument. They don't, you know, sometimes with shadow docket emergency applications, they don't even do oral argument. But this is such a big issue that they'll hold oral argument. That'll probably be in later September, beginning of October. Now, the new term for the Supreme Court opens first Monday in October. We got oral argument. We'll play it on Legal AF, the YouTube channel. Come over there, hit the free subscribe button. And if I were guessing, I think even this would piss off some of the right wing on the United States Supreme Court. And it may go down. You know, Trump may not get the five votes he needs to support because it does look like a violation of the major questions doctrine. It does look like Congress hasn't clearly spoken here. It does look like the emergency application law or the emergency law that Donald Trump is relying on does not support his position. And no amount of contortion and gymnastics and turning themselves into a pretzel is going to change that. Now they all try to reverse engineer it because they love helping Donald Trump and bend it over backwards. But they also have to think about the precedent of what it means in the future for this type of statute. Now, there had been a prior emergency act that was used in the 70s by Richard Nixon, but there similar language, but they found, yeah, you can do a tariff. Nixon it was challenged in the courts also, but it was such a short term and such a specific item that it really looked like a sanction. It was a tariff, but it was really a sanction. That's not what Donald Trump did. He did these reciprocal tariffs on 150 countries. We're up to an average of 16%, the highest since 1930. And then he, then he's nailed other countries with penalties like Brazil for 50%. You know, he's claiming that's a national security issue that's gonna get reviewed because he doesn't like the fact that they're, they're gonna put in prison the Donald Trump of Brazil, Bolsonaro, who led a coup, almost a military coup, to stop the peaceful transfer of power in Brazil after he lost. Who's that sound like? In fact, it happened after January 6th and even tried to use a Jan6 tactic of having his supporters storm the capitol in Brazil. And he got caught and he's going to go to jail. No matter how much Donald Trump whines and how much he threatens the economic sanctions on Supreme Court justices in Brazil, that's going down. Now, that's not technically an IPA thing, but the ones with Canada, when you hear Canada, Mexico, European Union, Indonesia, Japan, all of it. All of it, and the ones that will be announced all go down in flames. If he loses at the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, which he will, and then at the United States Supreme Court, that'll probably be a later September, October event for oral argument. And they'll rule after that. My gut is they're going to let the collection of the federal tariffs happen in the meantime, so Donald Trump can keep taking a victory clap. And then one day they're going to say, no, sorry, give it all back. I'll follow it. You're on the Midas Dutch Network. I'm Michael Popak, co founder, co anchor of Legal AF. I'm the managing director of Legal AF YouTube channel. Come over there as well and and all things Legal af. So until my next report, I'm Michael. Can't get your fill of Legal af. Me neither. That's why we formed the Legal AF sub stack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the substack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do called Wait for it Morning af. What else? All the other contributors from Legal AOFF are there as well. We got some new reporting, we got interviews, we got AD free versions of the podcast and hot takes where Legal AF on substack. Come over now to free subscribe.
Legal AF by MeidasTouch: Detailed Summary of "Trump Gets Ripped to Shreds on Tariffs by Appeals Court"
Release Date: August 2, 2025
In this episode of Legal AF hosted by the MeidasTouch Network, Michael Popak, a national trial lawyer strategist, delves into the recent legal challenges facing former President Donald Trump's tariff policies. The discussion centers around an influential ruling by an 11-judge panel from the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, which threatens to dismantle Trump's tariff scheme. This episode provides a comprehensive analysis of the legal arguments, judicial perspectives, and the potential ramifications for future trade policies.
At approximately [01:29], Michael Popak introduces the crux of the episode: an 11-judge panel from the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals is poised to invalidate Trump's tariff policies. Popak emphasizes the significance of this ruling, highlighting that it would halt Trump's ability to impose further tariffs, collect associated revenues, and enforce sanctions linked to these tariffs.
Michael Popak [01:45]: "When they strike them down, that means he's not going to be doing any more deals, he's not going to be collecting any more money, he's not going to be imposing any more sanctions."
The panel's decision is expected to reverse the administration's previous stance, which allowed for the collection of substantial tariff revenues—estimated between $50 to $60 billion—now subject to potential refunds.
Popak delves into the legal underpinnings of the case, focusing on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) of 1977. He explains that the central issue is whether Trump possessed the authority under IEEPA to unilaterally impose tariffs, a power traditionally reserved for Congress.
Michael Popak [03:20]: "There's not one mention of tariffs as a power under IEEPA... The entirety of the IEEPA statute doesn't include tariffs as a presidential power."
The panel scrutinized whether Trump's use of IEEPA to justify tariffs aligns with the Act's original intent, which primarily addresses sanctions related to national security threats, rather than broad-based economic measures like tariffs.
The episode highlights key opinions from the panel, particularly focusing on Judge Reyna and Judge Dyke:
Judge Reyna [04:10]: During oral arguments, Judge Reyna challenged the Department of Justice's interpretation of IEEPA by asking, "Show me where in the entirety of the IEEPA statute there's a mention of the word tariff being a power of a president." This pointedly questions the legal basis for Trump's tariff actions under IEEPA.
Judge Dyke [05:00]: Referencing the major questions doctrine, Judge Dyke asserts that significant shifts in statutory interpretation, such as granting tariff powers to the president under IEEPA, require clear Congressional intent.
Judge Dyke [05:15]: "If Congress wants to totally turn over a power or throw out an entire section... they should express that clearly. They haven't done that."
Popak underscores that the panel's unanimous skepticism towards expanding presidential powers without explicit legislative support marks a significant judicial rebuke of Trump's tariff strategy.
The potential ruling against Trump not only undermines his current tariff measures but also sets a precedent limiting presidential authority in economic matters. Popak predicts that if the Federal Circuit Court rules as expected, the case will escalate to the United States Supreme Court.
Michael Popak [07:30]: "They may go up to the United States Supreme Court. We'll talk about that next as well."
He anticipates that the Supreme Court, likely divided along ideological lines with a bench of eight Democrats to three Republicans, may uphold the appeals court's decision, further invalidating Trump's tariffs. The timeline suggests a ruling by early September, with Supreme Court deliberations scheduled for late September or early October.
Furthermore, Popak highlights the financial entanglements of Trump's administration, noting that funds collected from tariffs may face reimbursement obligations once the tariffs are struck down. He points to potential conflicts of interest involving Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's family business, which stands to benefit from refund claims on overpaid tariffs.
In wrapping up, Michael Popak reiterates the court's critical stance on Trump's tariff implementation, emphasizing that the judiciary is unlikely to favor broad executive actions that bypass Congressional authority. He underscores the importance of adhering to established legal frameworks to maintain the balance of power.
Michael Popak [10:00]: "No amount of contortion and gymnastics and turning themselves into a pretzel is going to change that."
The episode concludes with an invitation to listeners to follow ongoing developments on the Legal AF YouTube channel and subscribe to the Legal AF Substack for detailed court filings, oral arguments, and daily legal briefs.
Federal Circuit Court of Appeals is set to rule against Trump's tariffs, restricting his ability to impose and collect tariffs further.
The legal challenge centers on the interpretation of the IEEPA, questioning the president's authority to enforce tariffs without explicit Congressional mandate.
Judges Reyna and Dyke played pivotal roles in questioning and rejecting the expansion of presidential powers under IEEPA for tariff purposes.
A potential Supreme Court review looms, with expectations of a ruling by early October that may definitively end Trump's tariff policies.
Financial repercussions include possible refunds of $50 to $60 billion collected from tariffs, affecting the administration's revenue and private interests linked to it.
This episode of Legal AF provides an in-depth examination of the judicial challenges to Trump's tariff policies, highlighting the interplay between law and politics and underscoring the judiciary's role in checking executive power.