The NCLA filed its lawsuit shortly after a small coalition of conservative senators, including former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), joined forces with Democrats to pass a bill to lower tariffs on Canada and curb the president’s ability to further complicate international trade.
A libertarian organization funded by Leonard Leo and Charles Koch has filed a lawsuit challenging Donald Trump’s proposed tariff policy, which constitutes one of the largest tax increases in decades.
According to The Guadian, the New Civil Liberties Alliance filed its claim against the Trump administration’s decision to levy high import tariffs on China. Attorneys for the Alliance say that, in imposing extraordinary tariffs on Chinese products, the president violated provisions of the International Emergency Economica Powers Act, or IEEPA.
The IEEPA grants the president broad authority to regulate domestic and international economic transactions during times of national emergency. In the case of Canada, he Trump claims that tariffs are necessary to suppress the supposed flow of opioids across the border.
The NCLA filed its lawsuit shortly after a small coalition of conservative senators, including former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), joined forces with Democrats to pass a bill to lower tariffs on Canada and curb the president’s ability to further complicate international trade.
McConnell, along with Sens. Rand Paul, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski, argues that the net-effect of tariffs on Canadian products will be economically harmful to American businesses and American consumers.
The lawsuit is being funded, at least in part, by billionaire industrialist Charles Koch and legal activist Leonard Leo. It was filed on behalf of Simplified, a Florida-based home goods company that imports material and products from China. Attorneys for the New Civil Liberties Alliance say that Trump violated federal law when he cited the IEEPA as a legal justification for tariffs.
“This statute authorizes specific emergency actions like imposing actions or freezing assets to protect the United States from foreign threats,” the NCLA said in a statement. “It does not authorize the president to impose tariffs. In its nearly 50-year history, no other president – including President Trump in his firm term – has ever tried to use the IEEPA to impose tariffs.”
The New Civil Liberties Alliance alleges that, as head of the executive branch, Trump does not and should not have authority over all trade and taxes. This power, instead, lies largely with Congress.
“His attempt to use the IEEPA this way not only violates the law as written, but it also invites application of the Supreme Court’s major questions doctrine, which tells the court not to discern policies of ‘vast economic and political significance’ in a law without explicit authorization,” the NCLA said in its statement.
The Alliance’s president, Mark Chenoweth, told The Guardian that the Florida-based court in which the lawsuit was filed will have no choice but to accept longstanding precedent.
“The means of an across-the-board tariff does not fit the end of stopping an influx of opioids, and is in no sense ‘necessary’ to the stated purpose,” the lawsuit alleges. “In fact, President Trump’s own statements reveal the real reason for the China tariff, which is to reduce American trade deficits while raising federal revenue.”
Sources
NCLA Sues to Stop Trump Admin. from Imposing Emergency Tariffs That Congress Never Authorized
Rightwing group backed by Koch and Leo sues to stop Trump tariffs
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