First lawsuit against Trump tariffs filed in Florida: A look at what it claims

The first known lawsuit against US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs against different nations around the world was filed by the New Liberties Civil Alliance. The group moved the court on behalf of a Florida stationery business entrepreneur who is arguing that the president “unlawfully” overstepped his authority to impose a national economic emergency and levies.

Lifestyle influencer and Simplified stationery business founder Emily Ley filed the federal lawsuit in Pensacola, Florida on Thursday. “These unlawfully implemented tariffs cause harm to American businesses, American jobs, and American consumers, and will be the end of many American dreams,” Ley said in a post, the day after Trump announced a series of steep tariffs.

As per the court filing, the suit specifically targets Trump’s 20 per cent tariffs on goods from China. In the post, Ley mentioned that her Florida-based small business purchases products from China to sell in the US.

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The suit challenges Trump’s authority

The lawsuit specifically challenges Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA), which requires extensive investigations before any sort of sanctions are imposed. It is pertinent to note that Trump had cited opioid trafficking from China as a reason for the “emergency” tariffs against the country.

The lawsuit on the other hand, argues that neither Trump nor his administration has shown that his actions are “necessary” or tailored to address a drug trafficking emergency. The lawyers cited Trump’s speech, where the American leader said that the tariffs are intended to reduce Trump deficit. In any case, the IEEPA allows for asset freezes, trade embargos and similar sanctions, but not tariffs, the suit argues.

The law “authorizes presidents to order sanctions as a rapid response to international emergencies. It does not allow a president to impose tariffs on the American people … Presidents can impose tariffs only when Congress grants permission,” the suit reads.

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“Congress passed the IEEPA to counter external emergencies, not to grant presidents a blank check to write domestic economic policy."

“In the IEEPA’s almost 50-year history, no previous president has used it to impose tariffs. This is not surprising, since the statute does not even mention tariffs, nor does it say anything else suggesting it authorizes presidents to tax American citizens," it furthered.

The suit asks the court to declare Trump’s Chinese tariffs unlawful and block their implementation. While Trump supporters argued that small and local companies should use American manufacturing for their products, Ley said that her company already tried that alternative.

“We pursued domestic manufacturing from the outset,” the entrepreneur said in an Instagram post. “Our first planners were made in the U.S. in 2012. Each unit cost $38 to make. The US did not/does not yet have the infrastructure to support what we make," she added.

Trump initially imposed a 10 per cent tariff on Chinese goods in a Feb. 1 executive order, then doubled it in another order on March 3. He boosted that to a total tariff of 54 per cent on Wednesday. In response to this Beijing attacked “bullying” Trump and imposed an across-the-board tariff of 34 percent on all American products sold to China.

With inputs from agencies.