A federal appeals court is weighing President Trump's ability to impose sweeping tariffs by invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA). CBS News legal contributor Jessica Levinson has more.

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Donald Trump has signed an order to impose tariffs imports into the U.S. from countries including China, Mexico and Canada.

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A federal appeals court is currently examining President Trump's use of emergency powers to impose broad tariffs on U.S. trading partners. The central issue is whether the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) grants the president the authority to implement tariffs during an emergency, as Congress traditionally holds the power to regulate commerce and tariffs.

Legal experts note that no previous president has used the IEEPA specifically to impose tariffs, raising questions about the statute's intended scope. The court's decision will clarify the extent of executive authority under this law and whether Congress effectively delegated such powers to the president. The discussion also touched on California's redistricting process, highlighting the complexity of altering independent commissions established by ballot measures.

Court weighs Trump's power to impose sweeping tariffs

And so a federal appeals court is weighing in on President Trump's use of an emergency powers law to impose the sweeping tariffs that have made headlines the last several months on U.S. trading partners. CBS News legal contributor Jessica Levinson, live from Los Angeles with me right now. Which way am I turning? Jessica, you're over here? Okay, there you are. So Jessica, the U.S. Court of Appeals hearing is really considering whether the president has authority to take this action. So walk us through the arguments on either side. So that's exactly right. I think it's actually a two-step process here. One, did Congress have the ability under the Constitution to provide the president with this authority? Because let's go all the way back to the Constitution read. The Constitution says Congress has the power to regulate interstate commerce, including tariffs. But Congress has ceded some of that authority in various statutes to presidents. The question, the next question is really, did they do so in this particular statute, the IEEPA, did they give a president the power to impose tariffs under that piece of federal legislation? And there's arguments about whether or not by the terms of that legislation, President Trump can impose these particular tariffs, whether or not we really are in the type of emergency situation that allows the president to impose tariffs, and whether or not this statute even envisions tariffs as a potential remedy for an emergency situation. All right. So you've now calibrated our minds to look back. You talked about the Constitution. Is it also true that no president has used this so-called International Emergency Economic Powers Act? And that's a mouthful, that it's never happened. And how is it applied and how does it stand up in the context of the court arguments? So not used for tariffs. And that was a big part of the oral arguments this morning, which is that when you look at statutes that might give the president the power to impose tariffs, this isn't one of them. And I will say there were a lot of people who study international trade and international law who were somewhat surprised that the president pointed to this statute in trying to justify the tariffs. Now, I think this will really be a question for this circuit court that looks at these issues on whether or not this particular law is a broad grant of authority. Even if a president has never used the statute to impose tariffs before, does the statute embrace that? And this is again, Reid, we're going back to that question that we're asking so often. How broad is executive authority? How much did Congress give a president and how much can a president take under this statute? All right. So, Jessica, while we have you, I want to really capitalize on your expertise in California law specifically, because we're seeing what's going on with Republicans wanting to move around the lines of that congressional map to try to pick up seats in Congress, especially as we look at the midterms and how crucial that's going to be for Republicans. Governor Gavin Newsom of the state of California is getting a lot of headlines, sort of one upping saying, OK, we can do that in the state of California. Is it my understanding it's not quite so easy to do that? Not quite so easy, Reid, because as you know, back in 2008 and then again in 2010, we passed these ballot measures and we said we're taking the power to draw district lines out of the hands of lawmakers and we're putting it in this 14 member independent redistricting commission. Now, my reading is that if you want Governor Newsom to really be able to play hardball and say we're going to politically gerrymander districts in order to try and pick up Democratic seats, then you have a real roadblock with that independent redistricting commission. You'd have to essentially suspend it. And I think that's part of what Governor Newsom is looking at, is looking at ways to either permanently or temporarily try and undo that measure that's part of the California Constitution. Yeah. But who would suspend it? Who actually has the authority to pull that lever and suspend that commission either forever or temporarily to get this done? So we know that when it comes to how do you change a ballot measure, it's with another ballot measure. And how do you change the Constitution? It's with a vote of the people. So I think all roads lead to a really difficult process of putting something to the voters to ask them whether or not they want to, again, permanently or temporarily suspend these measures. Now, there may be somebody who's looking at this who found a workaround. But generally speaking, you have a ballot measure. It's passed. You need another ballot measure. This is California law. You need another ballot measure to overturn it. And anything in the Constitution, you need to go to the people, a vote of the people to change that. And so I think this is going to be very difficult for Governor Newsom. Jessica Levinson, always great to talk to you. Thank you so much for helping us to understand.

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Court weighs Trump's power to impose sweeping tariffs

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