A U.S. Court of Appeals ruled late last week that many of the tariffs which President Donald Trump has imposed are illegal.

That decision was met with opposition from Republicans, with one senator stepping up to support Trump's authority. 

Lankford says case will go to the Supreme Court

Breitbart reported that Oklahoma Sen. James Lanford's remarks came on Sunday during an interview with Kristen Welker, host of NBC's "Meet the Press."

"This is actually going to go to the Supreme Court next because the way the law is actually written is the law gives the authority to the president to be able to make decisions regulating imports and exports," he said.

"This is actually going to go to the Supreme Court next because the way the law is actually written is the law gives the authority to the president to be able to make decisions regulating imports and exports," Lanford continued.

"What the president is saying is tariffs [are] a way to be able to regulate imports and exports," the Oklahoma lawmaker went on to insist.

Case concerns law passed in 1977

The law in question is the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), a piece of legislation which President Jimmy Carter signed in 1977.

Its provisions allow a president to regulate commercial interactions between the United States and other nations after a state of emergency has been declared.

However, a three-judge panel at the New York-based Court of International Trade (CIT) found in May that Trump's tariffs " exceed any authority granted to" him.

Fox News reported that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit agreed with that assessment in a decision handed down this past Friday.

"We affirm the CIT’s holding that the Trafficking and Reciprocal Tariffs imposed by the Challenged Executive Orders exceed the authority delegated to the President by IEEPA’s text."

Lankford says Trump has "three targets"

Nevertheless, Lankford defended the president's agenda, telling Welker that Trump is trying "to get more manufacturing into the United States" and "get other countries to be able to open up their markets" while also reducing America's trade deficit.

"Those are the three targets he’s trying to accomplish, and he is accomplishing all three of those," the Republican senator asserted.

"We have ten trade deals that have now been done in seven very short months with major countries like the EU and UK and Philippines, with Indonesia, South Korea, Japan," Lankford pointed out.