'Unconstitutional usurpation of power': Small businesses sue Trump over 'devastating' tariffs
Though U.S. President Donald Trump temporarily paused some of his "Liberation Day" tariffs for negotiations, a nonprofit firm and legal scholar still sued him and other officials on Monday on behalf of five import-reliant small businesses, asking the U.S. Court of International Trade to "declare the president's unprecedented power grab illegal."
Ilya Somin, a Cato Institute chair and George Mason University law professor, announced earlier this month on a legal blog hosted by the outlet Reason that he and the Liberty Justice Center—which has a record of representing libertarian positions in court battles—were "looking for appropriate plaintiffs to bring this type of case."
Monday's complaint was filed on behalf of FishUSA, Genova Pipe, MicroKits, Terry Precision Cycling, and VOS Selections. It argues that "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."
"And the president's justification does not meet the standards set forth in the IEEPA," the complaint continues. "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. Nor do these trade deficits constitute an 'unusual and extraordinary threat.' The president's attempt to use IEEPA to impose sweeping tariffs also runs afoul of the major questions doctrine."
Somin said in a Monday statement that "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."
Though U.S. President Donald Trump temporarily paused some of his "Liberation Day" tariffs for negotiations, a nonprofit firm and legal scholar still sued him and other officials on Monday on behalf of five import-reliant small businesses, asking the U.S. Court of International Trade to "declare the president's unprecedented power grab illegal."
Ilya Somin, a Cato Institute chair and George Mason University law professor, announced earlier this month on a legal blog hosted by the outlet Reason that he and the Liberty Justice Center—which has a record of representing libertarian positions in court battles—were "looking for appropriate plaintiffs to bring this type of case."
Monday's complaint was filed on behalf of FishUSA, Genova Pipe, MicroKits, Terry Precision Cycling, and VOS Selections. It argues that "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."
"And the president's justification does not meet the standards set forth in the IEEPA," the complaint continues. "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. Nor do these trade deficits constitute an 'unusual and extraordinary threat.' The president's attempt to use IEEPA to impose sweeping tariffs also runs afoul of the major questions doctrine."
Somin said in a Monday statement that "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."
