On the day before President Donald Trump's next set of tariff hikes is set to materialize, a federal appeals court will grapple with the big, unanswered question underpinning the president's aggressive and unprecedented trade policies.

Companies, consumers and foreign countries have been paying close attention to President Donald Trump’s aggressive policy of placing tariffs on foreign goods. Soon, the courts will weigh in on whether Trump has the power to levy those tariffs in the first place — a high-stakes legal battle that will either affirm a key pillar of Trump’s economic policy or cut it off at the knees.