New Civil Liberties Alliance, a conservative legal group, on Thursday filed what it said was the first lawsuit seeking to block Donald Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports, saying the US president overstepped his authority.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Florida, alleges that Trump lacked the legal authority to impose the sweeping tariffs unveiled on Wednesday as well as duties authorized on 1 February under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
“By invoking emergency power to impose an across-the-board tariff on imports from China that the statute does not authorize, President Trump has misused that power, usurped Congress’ right to control tariffs, and upset the Constitution’s separation of powers,” NCLA senior litigation counsel Andrew Morris said in a statement.
White House representatives did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
NCLA filed the lawsuit on behalf of Simplified, a Florida-based retailer of home management products.
Trump on Wednesday announced that China would be hit with a 34 per cent tariff, on top of the 20 per cent he imposed earlier this year, bringing the total new levies to 54 per cent.
The lawsuit asks a judge to block implementation and enforcement of the tariffs and undo Trump’s changes to the US tariff schedule.
The lawsuit says presidents can only impose tariffs with Congress’ permission and under complex trade statutes spelling out how and when they can be authorised.
“Such statutes require advance investigations, detailed factual findings, and a close fit between the statutory authority and a tariff’s scope,” the lawsuit says.
The law Trump invoked has never been used to impose tariffs and only allows presidents to take actions that are necessary to address a specific emergency, the lawsuit said.
Trump has declared an emergency over China’s alleged complicity in the US opioid epidemic, framing tariffs as a negotiating tool for ending the influx of the deadly drugs.
The lawsuit says that justification is a pretext for imposing tariffs aimed at reducing US trade deficits while raising tax revenue.
The case was assigned to US District Judge Kent Wetherell, a Trump appointee who had halted a key part of former President Joe Biden’s immigration policy in 2023.