In court filings, attorneys for Emily Ley and Simplified asked Wetherell to weigh in on the tariffs’ legality.
A Florida-based federal judge has reaffirmed that President Donald Trump has the authority to impose tariffs on foreign countries and products, but stopped just short of giving the White House free rein over trade.
According to ABC News, U.S. District Judge T. Kent Wetherell II issued a largely technical ruling on Tuesday, in which he transferred a lawsuit filed on behalf of the Emily Ley Paper Company and its subsidiary, Simplified, to a different federal court.
Emily Ley Paper, based in Florida, filed its lawsuit challenging Trump’s tariffs in April.
“I was seeing so much misinformation and confusion about what tariffs are, who pays the tariffs, and how tariffs impact employees and businesses and consumers,” Ley told Business Insider in April. “[S]o just a couple weeks ago, I decided I have to got to speak up and say something.”
The New Civil Liberties Alliance, the libertarian legal group representing Ley, argued that any decision to impose sweeping tariffs should rest solely with Congress.
“The constitutional power ‘to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts, and Excises’ and ‘to regulate commerce with foreign Nations’ belongs to Congress,” NCLA senior litigation counsel John Vecchione said in an April statement. “The Administration’s actions followed none of these constitutional commands.”
At the time of the lawsuit’s filing, the Trump administration had imposed tariffs of up to 145% on Chinese products.
In court filings, attorneys for Emily Ley and Simplified asked Wetherell to weigh in on the tariffs’ legality.
And, on Tuesday, Wetherell delivered his response, saying that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 gives Trump authority to set tariffs for reasons other than raising revenue.
Furthermore, Wetherell said that the Trump administration’s explanation for its sweeping tariffs—purportedly imposed to level trade deficits and curb the flow of illegal drugs into the United States—appears complaint with the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
“This is a civil action commenced against the United States and it arises out of a federal law—IEEPA—so the dispositive question framed by the parties’ filing is whether IEEPA ‘provid[es] for … tariffs,” Wetherell wrote. “Defendants contend that it does; Plaintiffs contend that it doesn’t. The Court agrees with Defendants …”
However, ABC News notes that the decision is, at best, a “symbolic victory” for the administration, which is currently litigating dozens of claims against its bizarre tariff regime.
Wetherell ultimately punted, transferring the case from the Florida-based federal court to the Court of International Trade in New York.
Sources
Judge says Trump has power to impose tariffs, but punts lawsuit to different court
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