Trump tariffs face new court challenge.

President Donald Trump’s near-global tariff policy is being challenged in federal court — again.

A panel of three judges at the U.S. Court of International Trade in Manhattan heard arguments Wednesday from a group of small businesses and Democratic-led states who say Trump’s sweeping “Section 301” tariffs overstep the law.

It’s the third time in less than two years that the courts have been asked to intervene against the president’s attempt to impose sweeping tariffs on the vast majority of U.S. imports.

The latest tariffs put 10% or 12.5% rates on goods from 86 countries, covering 99.4% of U.S. imports. The Trump administration said they were imposed in response to the targeted countries failing to effectively enforce bans on the trade of goods produced using forced labor practices.

But an attorney for the challengers said at the start of Wednesday’s hearing that a “constellation of factors” show the government’s justification was a “pretext” in pursuit of reviving Trump’s worldwide tariff regime.

“We know this was not the only reason that they did this,” the attorney, Pratik Shah, said.

One of the judges pushed back. “So what?” she asked, probing whether the government having additional motivations for the tariffs was enough to rule against them.

Shah replied that the administration’s “unprecedented” use of Section 301 — slapping tariffs of similar size on dozens of economies in “one fell swoop” after a truncated investigation — does not satisfy the statute’s requirements.

READ MORE: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/30/trump-tariffs-trade-lawsuit.html