EXCLUSIVE: The Rigged Bench

Court Records Show Chief Judge Barnett Hand Selected Jurists Poised to Axe Trump Tariffs

The Hand-Picked Panel

Friday, May 30th, 2025: By Walter Curt

Chief Judge Mark A. Barnett didn’t just referee Donald Trump’s Liberation-Day tariffs—he rigged the match. American Greatness blew the whistle on May 15, reporting that Barnett bypassed the Court of International Trade’s blind assignment wheel and steered every anti-tariff suit to Judges Gary Katzmann, Timothy Reif, and Jane Restani—three jurists with records of shredding Trump-era duties. Court documents obtained by The W.C. Dispatch show Barnett’s signed, dated “Order of Assignment,” confirming he hand-loaded the bench long before the first brief was filed.

Gary Katzmann, an Obama appointee, declared in a 2019 dubitante opinion that Section 232 lets presidents “accumulate all powers … the very definition of tyranny.” Jane Restani, on the bench since Reagan but long the court’s swing to the left, voided Trump’s 50-percent steel surcharge on Turkey in 2020 as part of a three-judge panel she shared with Katzmann, branding the move “unlawful and void.” Timothy Reif, though commissioned by Trump, spent two decades as Democrats’ lead trade counsel on Capitol Hill drafting laws to fence presidents in; last year he warned from the bench that “Congress—not the executive—sets the metes and bounds of tariff law.” Barnett knew those opinions. He also knew 28 U.S.C. § 253(c) lets a chief judge “designate” panels “for the convenience of the court.” He used that loophole to wire the outcome.

The first Liberation-Day complaint hit the docket May 3. Twenty-four days later the Katzmann-Reif-Restani trio skipped the usual injunction hearing and jumped straight to final judgment. Their opinion branded the International Emergency Economic Powers Act an unconstitutional delegation, barred Customs from collecting a cent, and opened the door to billions in tariff refunds—cash that flows straight to importers and guts President Trump’s trade negotiations.

Two judges had already struck Trump tariffs; the third wrote the statutes designed to stop them. Barnett collected the only combination that guaranteed a 3-0 kill shot, then kept the assignment secret until briefing schedules landed in lawyers’ inboxes. Random wheel? Dead. Transparency? Gone. The fix was in before the first reply brief left the printer.

A court created in 1980 to classify widgets has now claimed veto power over national-security tariffs, and one administrator can choose who wields that veto. Today the casualties are steel and semiconductors. Tomorrow the same trick could erase a future president’s defense surcharge on rare-earth magnets or pharmaceuticals. If the wheel can be bypassed at will, the Court of International Trade isn’t an umpire; it’s a house dealer.

The Justice Department not only appealed but also secured a temporary administrative stay from the Federal Circuit, keeping Trump’s tariffs alive—for now. That raises a larger question: will an obscure Manhattan trade court face any consequences for nearly kneecapping a sitting president’s entire economic program?

Congress could shut the loophole with a two-line statute requiring genuine random draws and publicly docketed panel orders. Until then, every importer and exporter is left wondering which tariffs are on, which are off, and when the rules might change again—uncertainty no court should be allowed to create.

Barnett didn’t roll the dice; he loaded them, handed them to three judges with a clear track record against Trump’s tariff tools, and dared America to bet on the house. The house won—because the table was rigged.