A dozen states have banded together to file a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s decision to levy tariffs on many of the world’s largest economies.
The lawsuit, led by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York Attorney General Letitia James, claims that the president lacks the authority to unilaterally impose tariffs.
Under most circumstances, the lawsuit says, tariffs must be approved by Congress.
About twelve states have since joined the complaint as plaintiffs.
In response to the lawsuit, the Trump administration quickly doubled down. Earlier this week, for instance, White House spokesman Kush Desai said that the “administration remains committed to using its full legal authority to confront the distinct national emergencies our country is currently facing—both the scourge of illegal migration and fentanyl flows across our border and the exploding annual US trade deficit.”
However, James and her colleagues claim that tariffs must be approved by Congress—and that the exception Trump has tried to claim, based on certain provisions of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, is nonsensical.
“By claiming the authority to impose immense and ever-changing tariffs on whatever goods entering the United States he chooses, for whatever reason he finds convenient to declare an emergency, the President has upended the constitutional order and brought chaos to the American economy,” the lawsuit charges.
Under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, presidents are permitted “to deal with any unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States, to the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States.” Invoking IEEPA typically requires that the president first issue a declaration of national emergency.
The lawsuit, though, argues that IEEPA doesn’t really give Trump the far-reaching power he claims to have. Furthermore, the act has never been used—by any president since its passage in the 1970s—to issue or enact new tariffs.
California has also filed a separate but related lawsuit against the Trump administration. In a recent statement, California Gov. Gavin Newsom explained that California has been “disproportionately impacted” by the tariffs.
“That’s our state of mind,” Newsom said. “That’s why we’re asserting ourselves on behalf of 40 million Americans.”
Trump, who proposed tariffs early in his second administration, claims that tariffs will encourage American consumers to purchase domestically-made gods. He has also suggested that tariffs could serve as an outright replacement for income tax.
Nevertheless, Trump’s decision to push forward with tariffs has repeatedly rattled the market, with many experts saying that it could take decades to revive manufacturing in the United States.
Trump has since backtracked on many of his proposed tariffs.
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