The New Civil Liberties Alliance filed a new lawsuit. They are taking an extraordinary step of challenging former President Donald Trump’s import tariffs on Chinese goods. This lawsuit reveals the growing cracks in the rightwing coalition. Perhaps most of all, it illustrates the deeper struggle between factions financed by oligarchs including billionaire industrialist Charles Koch and legal crusader Leonard Leo.
Simplified, a Florida-based home goods company that heavily relies on Chinese imports, has filed the suit. They argue that Trump’s tariffs lack any legal justification and exceed the scope of authority provided to the president. The alliance says the president overstepped his authority by misusing the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). They claim this improper use is what’s allowing them to justify the tariffs.
A spokesperson for Stand Together reached out to clarify Stand Together’s position. This advocacy group, which receives partial funding from Koch, is not a party to the legal suit. Despite this, the alliance’s legal challenge is emblematic of broader concerns over executive power and the appropriate scope of tariff authority.
Mark Chenoweth, president of the New Civil Liberties Alliance, said that IEEPA allows specific emergency actions. It has never bestowed unlimited power to the president to impose tariffs. Chenoweth explained that this statute provides necessary authority to enable targeted emergency actions. Such powers include imposing sanctions and freezing assets to protect the U.S. from foreign adversaries.
The lawsuit argues that no president has ever exercised the IEEPA in this way. That’s on top of other norm violations, including Trump during his first term. Chenoweth called out an issue fundamental to evaluating success. In its almost 50-year history, no president, not even President Trump in his first term, has tried to use the IEEPA to establish tariffs.
As we’ve noted before, the complaint makes clear that imposing sweeping tariffs across the board isn’t the proper remedy. It argues that this model does not adequately address the fentanyl crisis. Her across-the-board tariff is a band-aid solution that will do nothing to curb the inundation of opioids. It’s not even a little bit ‘necessary’ for that goal.
The new alliance calls out the hypocrisy in Trump’s statements. They expose that his real goal for the tariffs is to reduce American trade deficits and increase federal revenue. The lawsuit claims that the authority to impose tariffs should be reserved to Congress rather than a sitting president. “Reading this law [IEEPA] broadly enough to uphold the China tariff would transfer core legislative power,” Chenoweth warned.
The lawsuit is filed at a time of growing bipartisan pushback against Trump’s tariff policies. To that end, last week, four Republican senators joined with all Democrats to back an amendment sponsored by Sen. This move marks the strengthening of a bipartisan coalition within the president’s own party against his harmful tariff regime.
According to reports, the White House budget office announced on Monday that Trump would veto any bill limiting his tariff powers. In an unusual move against congressional dissent, Trump publicly tore into Senator Rand Paul and three other Republican senators for supporting the amendment. He implied they were motivated by what he termed “Trump derangement syndrome.”
Even if this specific case makes it to a higher court, Chenoweth said the Pensacola court would have to take existing precedent into account when making its ruling. “To avoid that non-delegation pitfall, the court must construe the statute consistent with nearly 50 years of unbroken practice and decide it does not permit tariff setting,” he asserted.