Five businesses faced off against President Donald Trump Monday by suing him for his “Liberation Day” tariffs and claiming that the president overstepped his legal authority.
The five challengers, represented by libertarian public-interest firm Liberty Justice Center, said that they faced steep economic challenges after Trump launched the April 2 attack on imports and sent markets plummeting.
The president was slammed by economists and commentators from both parties for his flawed math after announcing “reciprocal” tariffs. He still chose to impose a baseline 10 percent tariff on imports and targeted dozens of other countries with hefty rates.
His move made stock markets plunge and left thousands of Americans concerned about a looming recession. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick promised it wouldn’t happen before the president himself declined to rule out a recession.
Lutnick backpedaled only days later, telling CBS News that the recession “is worth it” because these “policies are the most important thing America has ever had.”
Trump later reduced the steeper tariffs to just 10 percent for 90 days to allow negotiations with allied countries.
But Americans are still concerned. And small business owners have had enough.
Monday’s lawsuit challenges Trump’s power to enforce the tariffs. To justify the massive charges, Trump invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), a 1997 law that allows the president to impose economic sanctions to combat an “unusual and extraordinary threat.”
Trump is the very first president to use the IEEPA to impose tariffs.
“Our system is not set up so that one person in the system can have the power to impose taxes across the world economy. That’s not how our constitutional republic works,” Jeffrey Schwab, senior counsel at Liberty Justice Center, which is leading the lawsuit, told The Hill.
He added: “That is the thing we’re very concerned about. Because today it’s tariffs, but could it be something else in the future.”
The plaintiffs complain that Trump claims the authority to levy tariffs “immediately, with no notice, or public comment, or phase-in, or delay in implementation, despite massive economic impacts that are likely to do severe damage to the global economy.”
They also find major issues with Trump’s justification for using the IEEPA. “His claimed emergency is a figment of his own imagination: trade deficits, which have persisted for decades without causing economic harm, are not an emergency,” the complaint reads. “Nor do these trade deficits constitute an ‘unusual and extraordinary threat.‘”
The plaintiffs hark back to one of America’s core principles, insisting on “no taxation without representation.” They also call Trump’s “unprecedented power grab” illegal.
There are five angry plaintiffs. First, a New York liquor business, which imports spirits from six continents. Next, a Utah manufacturer of plastic services, which brings in materials from Asia. There’s also a Virginia musical instrument company, a Pennsylvania fishing gear business, and a Vermont women’s cycling apparel store, all of which source different items or materials from abroad.
The Liberty Justice Center regularly represents conservative causes and filed the lawsuit in partnership with Ilya Somin, a law professor at George Mason’s law school. The suit was filed in the U.S. Court of International Trade.
The suit’s outcome could have far-reaching implications for Trump’s tariff agenda. Four members of the Blackfeet Nation sued Trump over his Canada tariffs, and New Civil Liberties Alliance earlier this month challenged some of Trump’s China tariffs. But Monday’s suit covers all the “Liberation Day” tariffs across the globe.
Somin said in a statement to The Hill: “If starting the biggest trade war since the Great Depression based on a law that doesn’t even mention tariffs is not an unconstitutional usurpation of legislative power, I don’t know what is.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the Trump administration for comment.
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