A conservative legal group is suing the Trump administration in Texas over the president’s tariffs on Chinese imports, alleging that they were unilaterally imposed through an “unlawful” use of an obscure emergency executive power.
The 24-page complaint filed Thursday by the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) in the U.S. District Court in Austin alleges that the authority to impose such tariffs lies exclusively with Congress, not the president, and seeks a preliminary injunction enjoining their implementation and enforcement.
It is the second such lawsuit filed by the group over President Donald Trump’s levies.
“A tariff is a tax on Americans’ commerce with other countries. The Constitution assigns Congress exclusive power to impose tariffs and regulate foreign commerce,” the complaint states. “Presidents can impose tariffs only when Congress grants permission, which it has done in carefully drawn trade statutes. These statutes typically authorize tariffs only on industries or countries that meet specified criteria, and only under specified conditions, after following specified procedures.”
Such tariff-authorizing statutes, the plaintiffs say, require advance investigations, detailed fact findings, and a “close fit between the statutory authority and a tariff’s scope,” all of which they say were conspicuously ignored by the administration. The Trump administration is attempting to “bypass” such constraints by invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA) in a manner that has never been done since that statute was passed nearly a half-century ago, the complaint alleges.
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The NCLA filed the complaint on behalf of outdoor cooking manufacturer FIREDISC, the nonprofit Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA), and an individual named Ryan Wholesale, who manufactures timber trusses and other wood products. The suit alleges that the “unconstitutional” tariffs will force the plaintiffs to pay more, thereby driving up their costs as well as the prices for their customers.
Plaintiffs argue that Trump is the first president to ever use the emergency statute as a means of imposing tariffs, a fact they say is “not surprising” because “the statute does not even mention tariffs, nor does it say anything else suggesting it authorizes presidents to tax American citizens.”
The first lawsuit was filed in Florida. I have no idea where it stands. I am definitely not equipped to evaluate this one, so I’ll point you to the NCLA’s statement, which includes a copy of the complaint, and we’ll see what happens. If this is something you can comment on, please do so. Raw Story and ICv2 have more.
“Wholesale” is quite an unusual family name… or is this a sign of some AI slop?