Fighting Back: 12 State Attorneys General File Lawsuit Against Trump Administration Over Its Tariff Agenda

There are democratic leaders out there who are not just sitting on their hands and waiting for some kind of Blue Jesus miracle to come and put an end to the daily trainwreck of corruption, incompetence and gross government overreach that is the Trump administration. Earlier this month, we reported on several state leaders who have refused to comply with President Donald Trump’s anti-DEI warpath, and now, we have the pleasure of reporting that a dozen democratic attorneys general have filed a joint lawsuit, arguing that Trump’s sweeping global tariff agenda is unlawful and unconstitutional as it undermines Congress’ constitutional authority to regulate foreign commerce. In other words, the executive branch keeps making unilateral decisions as if checks and balances are a thing of the past, and some government officials are using the courts to say, “Nah, bro, that ain’t how it works!”

Twelve states filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging the legality of President Donald Trump’s broad tariff agenda, arguing it unlawfully undermines Congress.

From NBC News:

The legal challenge, led by Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes and Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield, seeks to halt the enforcement of the global tariffs Trump levied that invoked a wartime law granting presidents the power to oversee trade if the United States is in a state of emergency.

“By claiming the authority to impose immense and ever-changing tariffs on whatever goods entering the United States he chooses, for whatever reason he finds convenient to declare an emergency, the President has upended the constitutional order and brought chaos to the American economy,” said the complaint Democratic attorneys general filed in the U.S. Court of International Trade.

Mayes said in a statement announcing the lawsuit, “Trump’s insane tariff scheme is not only economically reckless — it is illegal.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James, a frequent target of Trump’s attacks, argued that the tariffs “will lead to more inflation, unemployment, and economic damage” and that U.S. consumers will be forced to foot the bill for what amount to high import taxes.

The lawsuit cites four tariff-focused executive orders signed by Trump. Each one invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a law that permits presidents to make trade decisions without congressional approval under declarations of national emergencies.

“The purported ‘unusual and extraordinary threat’ identified by President Trump as ‘national emergencies’ do not amount to emergencies. Nor are they extraordinary or even unusual,” the lawsuit says.

Without proper emergency justification for using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the lawsuit says, the Trump administration is violating Congress’ “power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises,” as delegated by Article 1 of the Constitution.

Predictably, Trump officials responded to the suit the same way they respond to virtually everything: by relying on buzzwords and random references to “illegal immigrants” in lieu of actual substance and/or reasoning.

“Once again, Democrats like Letitia James are prioritizing a witch hunt against President Trump over protecting the safety and well-being of their constituents,” said White House spokesman Kush Desai. “The Trump Administration remains committed to using its full legal authority to confront the distinct national emergencies our country is currently facing—both the scourge of illegal migration and fentanyl flows across our border and the exploding annual U.S. goods trade deficit.”

There are virtually no leading economists who have expressed a positive outlook on how Trump’s idiotic tariff tirade will affect the future of the U.S. economy, and Trump’s approval rating continues to plummet, especially as it applies to his handling of the economy — but sure, the suggestion that Congress should be included in matters that should (and probably do) require Congressional approval is all about a “which hunt.” (It’s also worth noting that while James is participating in the lawsuit, the New York attorney general is not the one who initially brought it on, but she sure is the only name specifically mentioned by Desai because nothing triggers the MAGA base better than the mentioning of the scary, mean Black lady who has already beaten Trump in the courtroom.)

Per Politico, the 12 states where attorneys general are listed as plaintiffs in the joint lawsuit are New York, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon and Vermont.

SEE ALSO:

Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Illinois And Other States Refuse To Comply With The Trump Administration’s Anti-DEI Directives

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