Executive Order 14326 explained · Executive Order · No disposition noted
Further Modifying the Reciprocal Tariff Rates
Signed: 2025-07-31 Published: 2025-08-06 Federal Register document: 2025-15010
Agencies: Executive Office of the President
Federal Register notes (as of 2026-10-19): See: EO 14257, April 2, 2025; EO 14298, May 12, 2025; EO 14345, September 4, 2025; EO 14346, September 5, 2025; Notice of March 24, 2026 (91 FR 15517)
What Executive Order 14326 says
Federal Register, Volume 90 Issue 149 (Wednesday, August 6, 2025) [Federal Register Volume 90, Number 149 (Wednesday, August 6, 2025)] [Presidential Documents] [Pages 37963-37992] From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] [FR Doc No: 2025-15010] Presidential Documents Federal Register / Vol. 90, No. 149 / Wednesday, August 6, 2025 / Presidential Documents [[Page 37963]] Executive Order 14326 of July 31, 2025 Further Modifying the Reciprocal Tariff Rates By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), section 604 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended (19 U.S.C. 2483), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, I hereby determine and order: Section 1. Background. In Executive Order 14257 of April 2, 2025 (Regulating Imports With a Reciprocal Tariff To Rectify Trade Practices That Contribute to Large and Persistent Annual United States Goods Trade Deficits), I found that conditions reflected in large and persistent annual U.S. goods trade deficits constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and economy of the United States that has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States. I...
Opening of the official text; read it in full in the Federal Register.
Constitution Index
“VFA Constitution grade”
Serious constitutional problems
Graded 2026-10-08
SI-generated grade · five published checks · not individually reviewed by a person · methodology
SI analysis grades this executive tariff order D: tariff authority belongs to Congress under Article I, Section 8, Clauses 1 and 3, and unilateral executive rate-setting under IEEPA exceeds presidential power and consolidates federal executive control, burdening individual property and contract liberty without adequate constitutional justification.
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✗ Concern · Enumerated powers
Article I, Section 8, Clause 1 vests Congress with power to lay and collect duties and imposts, and Clause 3 vests Congress with power to regulate commerce with foreign nations. Article I, Section 1 vests all legislative powers in Congress. The President cites IEEPA, the National Emergencies Act, and 19 U.S.C. 2483, but an emergency declaration over persistent trade deficits does not create an enu… -
✓ Passes · Bill of Rights
No direct First through Eighth Amendment infringement is imposed by the tariff-rate schedules. No speech, religion, press, assembly, arms, quartering, search, self-incrimination, or trial right is restricted on its face. Any Tenth Amendment concern is graded under enumerated powers and decentralization. Severity is none because the order regulates import duties rather than protected expression or … -
✗ Concern · Individual sovereignty
The order restricts how persons use their own property, labor, and contracts by adding 10 to 15 percent and higher ad valorem duties on imported goods, with costs passed to importers, businesses, and consumers. The burden is on the government to justify such restriction under a compelling constitutional grant. A generalized finding of large trade deficits and lack of reciprocity, assessed through … -
✗ Concern · Decentralization
Trade with foreign nations cannot be managed by individuals, counties, or single states without fragmentation and retaliation, so questions 1-3 favor federal handling under Article I, Section 8, Clause 3. Question 4 fails: the order consolidates decision-making upward within the federal government, from Congress to the President acting under IEEPA and the National Emergencies Act. Tariff-setting a… -
✓ Passes · Due process and takings
Under the Fifth Amendment Due Process and Takings Clauses, the order provides prospective notice through the Federal Register, a delayed effective date 7 days after signing, and a defined in-transit exception through October 5, 2025, administered through CBP under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule. It does not seize identified property retroactively, impose criminal punishment without trial, or take …
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