The Liberty Justice Center, a libertarian legal association, has started a broad challenge to the Trump White House’s claimed authority for tariffs, moving in the U.S. Court of International Trade on behalf of five small American manufacturing corporations that claim standing for the challenge due to impairments to their exports. Since the U.S. Court of International Trade is established under Article III of the U.S. Constitution as a U.S. court, this proceeding could reach higher courts of appeals and the Supreme Court.
The Constitution’s Article II, Section 10 very clearly gives Congress the power to enact taxes, import duties, and excises among its other authorities. Of course, legislation since World War II has tried to fudge this by creating “emergencies” and “exigent circumstances” in which the Executive may take the power from Congress.
The Center’s release explains: “The President invoked the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to justify the ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs, as well as the tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China. But under that law, the President may invoke emergency economic powers only after declaring a national emergency in response to an ‘unusual and extraordinary threat’ to national security, foreign policy, or the U.S. economy originating outside of the United States. The lawsuit argues that the Administration’s justification—a trade deficit in goods—is neither an emergency, nor an unusual or extraordinary threat. Trade deficits have existed for decades, and do not constitute a national emergency or threat to security. Moreover, the Administration imposed tariffs even on countries with which the U.S. does not have a trade deficit, further undermining the Administration’s justification.
