24 states sue the US government to stop tariffs

A group of 24 US entities sued the administration led by President Donald Trump, in the first legal challenge against new 10 percent global tariffs, alleging that the Republican cannot avoid a recent US Supreme Court ruling that invalidated most of the previous taxes on imported products.

Democratic-governed states, including New York, California and Oregon, maintain that the new tariffs, which Trump announced immediately after the high court’s Feb. 20 ruling, are also illegal.

The tariffs were imposed for 150 days under the Trade Act of 1974, which is intended to address short-term monetary emergencies, not the usual trade deficits that occur when a wealthy nation like the United States imports more than it exports, according to the lawsuit filed by the states at the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York.

Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield said during a news conference that Trump’s new tariffs are an attempt to “circumvent” working with Congress, as required by the Constitution.

“President Trump’s signature economic policy is historically unpopular and is costing Americans, our businesses and us as states hundreds of billions of dollars,” Rayfield said. “It cannot continue just because a few Trump lawyers have found a way to twist the words and make a legal argument.”

White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement that the administration will vigorously defend the president’s action.

The Court of International Trade in New York, which will hear the lawsuit, ruled last year – when it lifted the tariffs under emergency powers – that Trump did not need them because Section 122 was applicable to combat trade deficits.

Trump has other legal powers he can use to impose tariffs, and some have already been tested in court. The tariffs Trump placed on Chinese imports during his first term under Section 301 of the same trade law remain in place.

The attorneys general of Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin, as well as the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania, also joined the lawsuit.