Liberty Justice Center and I File Lawsuit Challenging Trump’s “Liberation Day” Tariffs
Today, the Liberty Justice Center and I filed a lawsuit in the Court of International Trade challenging the legality of Donald Trump’s gargantuan “Liberation Day” tariffs, on behalf of five US businesses that import goods from many of the countries targeted by the tariffs. The case is entitled VOS Selections, Inc. v. Trump.
In previous posts, I previewed our key arguments and explained why Trump’s partial pause of the tariffs does not end the madness or obviate the need to challenge this usurpation of legislative power in court.
To briefly summarize, we argue that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA) doesn’t authorize tariffs at all, that even if it does the bilateral trade deficits targeted by the “Liberation Day” tariffs do not qualify as an “emergency” or as an ” “unusual and extraordinary threat” (both prerequsites to invoking IEEPA), that Trump’s se of IEEPA for this purpose runs afoul of the “major questions” doctrine, and that – if these actions are authorized by IEEPA – it would violate constitutional limits on delegation of legislative power to the executive. If we prevail on any one of these points, we win the case.
The complaint is available here.
Here is an excerpt from the Liberty Justice Center press release announcing the case:
On April 14, the Liberty Justice Center filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump Administration’s authority to unilaterally issue the “Liberation Day” tariffs, which are devastating small businesses across the cou
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