WASHINGTON —

A federal appeals court has temporarily reinstated President Donald Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs, just one day after a separate federal court ruled them unconstitutional.

The rapid legal whiplash is the latest chapter in a long-simmering dispute over the limits of presidential power — and it's leaving small business owners like Manuel Cortes scrambling.

For 19 years, Cortes has run Groovy DC Cards and Gifts in Washington, D.C., surviving economic downturns and the COVID-19 pandemic. But he says tariffs have been a different kind of unpredictability.

“I spend most of the day writing orders, but I don't know how much should I get? Are people going to buy because the economy's changing? People may be not spending the way they were spending last year," Cortes said.

The is

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