It’s become a familiar cycle: Donald Trump dusts off a long-settled law, reinterprets it and attempts to wield it in unprecedented, far-reaching ways. The courts slam the brakes, saying the president’s creative reimagining is just plain illegal.

It happened again this week — with an exclamation point — when two federal courts invalidated the central plank of Trump’s economic agenda: a slate of emergency tariffs that spurred uncertainty across the globe.

Both courts found that Trump severely exceeded his authority when he invoked a 1977 law as the legal basis for the tariffs. That law, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, permits the president to impose tariffs on an emergency basis — but only in limited circumstances and for limited purposes. In the words of one judge, Trump broke with “five decades” of practice by presidents who never claimed the power that Trump says IEEPA gives him.

Both court rulings are on hold for now while the administration appeals. But they point to a broader strategy Trump has used in his effort to swiftly enact his second-term agenda: He repurposes old or obscure statutes, especially those that give presidents special powers during times of war or other national crises.

Beyond the realm of tariffs, he’s used the same playbook to try to supercharge his deportation program and to try to kneecap public-employee labor unions.