Twelve states filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging the legality of President Donald Trump's broad tariff agenda, arguing it unlawfully undermines Congress' constitutional authority to regulate foreign commerce.
The legal challenge, led by Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes and Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield, seeks to halt the enforcement of the global tariffs Trump levied that invoked a wartime law granting presidents the power to oversee trade if the United States is in a state of emergency.
"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," said the complaint Democratic attorneys general filed in the U.S. Court of International Trade.
Mayes said in a statement announcing the lawsuit, “Trump’s insane tariff scheme is not only economically reckless — it is illegal.”
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New York Attorney General Letitia James, a frequent target of Trump's attacks, argued that the tariffs "will lead to more inflation, unemployment, and economic damage" and that U.S. consumers will be forced to foot the bill for what amount to high import taxes.
In response to a request for comment, White House spokesman Kush Desai said: “Once again, Democrats like Letitia James are prioritizing a witch hunt against President Trump over protecting the safety and wellbeing of their constituents."
"The Trump 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 U.S. goods trade deficit,” Desai added.
The lawsuit cites four tariff-focused executive orders signed by Trump. Each one invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a law that grants presidents permission to make trade decisions without congressional approval under declarations of national emergencies.
“The purported ‘unusual and extraordinary threat’ identified by President Trump as ‘national emergencies’ do not amount to emergencies. Nor are they extraordinary or even unusual,” the lawsuit says.
Without proper emergency justification for using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the lawsuit says, the Trump administration is violating Congress’ “power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises,” as delegated by Article 1 of the Constitution.
The Trump administration has sought to justify its recent tariffs on key U.S. trading partners by declaring various emergencies it argued the countries were at fault for causing.
The lawsuit comes amid a bipartisan push in Congress to put broad trade authority back in the hands of the legislative branch. Sens. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who are on the Senate Finance Committee, have co-sponsored a bill that would require the president to notify Congress 48 hours before imposing new tariffs.
