The White House said a lawsuit five businesses filed over President Donald Trump’s tariffs was the work of those who oppose the president.
On Monday, a nonprofit public-interest litigation firm filed a lawsuit alleging Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs require congressional approval. The Liberty Justice Center, based in Texas, challenged the administration’s reciprocal tariffs, which Trump announced on April 2 and suspended on April 9, hours after they went into effect.
The lawsuit alleges that the statute Trump has used to justify the tariffs, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, doesn’t give Trump the authority he thinks it does. The lawsuit asks the U.S. Court of International Trade to “declare the President’s unprecedented power grab illegal, enjoin the operation of the executive actions that purport to impose these tariffs under the IEEPA, and reaffirm this country’s core founding principle: there shall be no taxation without representation.”
“Never Trumpers will always oppose him, but President Trump is standing up for Main Street by putting an end to our trading partners – especially China – exploiting the U.S.,” said Harrison Fields, special assistant to Trump’s principal deputy press secretary. “His plan levels the playing field for businesses and workers to address our country’s national emergency of chronic trade deficits.”
The Liberty Justice Center filing argues that the administration has no authority to issue across-the-board worldwide tariffs without congressional approval. The nonprofit’s lawsuit alleges Trump has broadly overstepped his authority by claiming “the authority to unilaterally levy tariffs on goods imported from any and every country in the world, at any rate, calculated via any methodology – or mere caprice – 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.”
