Jacob Kopnick

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of June 20-26:

Marlon Moody, a former employee at cargo handling company Alliance Ground International, was sentenced to one year in prison for stealing four gold bars that were being shipped from Australia to New York, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California announced. In April 2020, employees of Alliance, which provides ground handling services at Los Angeles International Airport, were tasked with offloading and securing a shipment of gold bars that were stopping in L.A. en route to New York. The shipment -- a collection of 2,000 gold bars each valued at around $56,000 --- arrived via Singapore Airlines at the direction of a Canadian bank.

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of June 13-19:

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit held in a June 16 opinion that window covering manufacturer Springs Window Fashions did not illegally fire customs broker Jennifer Lam-Quang-Vinh over her position that the company had to pay Section 301 China tariffs. Judges Diane Sykes, Michael Brennan and Michael Scudder said that the record evidence does not support Lam's position that she was fired in retaliation (Jennifer Lam-Quang-Vinh v. Springs Window Fashions, 7th Cir. #21-2665).

The Commerce Department should obtain all ex parte communications from the White House involving President Joe Biden's recent decision to temporarily suspend antidumping and countervailing duties on solar cells from four Southeast Asian nations, U.S. solar company Auxin Solar said in a June 9 letter to Commerce. Suspecting that the White House made the decision after consulting with stakeholders, Auxin said that the law requires all ex parte communications to be placed on the record.

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of June 6-12:

The Court of International Trade in a June 1 opinion made public June 9 dismissed a case seeking Section 232 steel and aluminum tariff exclusions brought by exporter Borusan Mannesmann and importer Gulf Coast Express Pipeline. Judge Timothy Reif said that the court lacks subject matter jurisdiction since the subject entries are unliquidated. The court ruled that the plaintiffs failed to show that CBP's decision not to issue refunds before liquidation constitutes a protestable decision.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in a June 9 opinion dismissed a broad challenge to President Donald Trump's Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs. The plaintiffs, led by USP Holdings, argued that the Commerce Department report preceding presidential action violated the law since it failed to outline an imminent threat to the domestic industry as required by the statute and was unsupported by substantial evidence. A three-judge panel at the court ruled against these arguments, holding that there is no "imminence requirement" in the statute and that the threat determination is not reviewable under the "arbitrary and capricious" standard since the secretary's action "is only reviewable for compliance with the statute."

The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of May 30 - June 5:

The Court of International Trade in a June 6 opinion dismissed test taker Byungmin Chae's lawsuit contesting five questions on the customs broker license exam. Judge Timothy Reif said CBP was right to dismiss Chae's appeal of four of the questions but that the agency wrongly denied the test taker's appeal for the fifth question. The reversal of one question wasn't enough to for a passing grade for Chae, who was two questions shy of the 75% threshold needed to pass the test.