(CFO Brew)—Instead of just saying “tariffs, amirite?” in response to every financial inconvenience like the rest of us, some businesses are taking matters into their own hands suing Trump.
A group of small businesses filed a lawsuit in the US Court of International Trade against President Donald Trump on Monday, claiming his tariffs on foreign imports violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) that he invoked in enacting the tariffs.
That act gives the president power to regulate economic transactions in the event of national emergency. Excuse the lawyer-speak for a minute: While the IEEPA doesn’t include an explicit definition of national emergency, in a markup of the law in the House, Fred Bergsten, who served at the time as assistant secretary for International Affairs at the Treasury Department, commended the requirement that a national emergency be “based on an unusual and extraordinary threat” since that formulation “emphasizes that such powers should be available only in true emergencies.”
The justification behind designating a national emergency is a key argument of the suit, which was filed by the Liberty Justice Center, a legal advocacy group representing companies harmed by the tariffs.
In claiming that trade deficits amount to an emergency, the suit argues Trump has overstepped Congress’s power.
“Congress has not delegated any such power,” the suit argues. “The statute the President invokes—the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (‘IEEPA’)—does not authorize the President to unilaterally issue across-the-board worldwide tariffs.”
The suit continues, saying that “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,” adding that the deficits do not “constitute an ‘unusual and extraordinary threat.’”
The filing adds to the legal reactions to Trump’s tariffs. A civil rights group called the New Civil Liberties Alliance filed a complaint on April 3 that also took aim at Trump’s use of the IEEPA.