Dozen states sue Trump in bid to dam new tariffs

NY Attorney General Letitia James speaks during a press conference on Feb. 14, 2025 in New York City.

Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images

A dozen states sued President Donald Trump and his administration on Wednesday, seeking a court order declaring that his new tariffs on foreign imports are illegal.

“The president does not have the power to raise taxes on a whim, but that’s exactly what President Trump has been doing with these tariffs,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement on the lawsuit.

The suit was filed in the U.S. Court of International Trade in Washington, D.C.

It argues that a president has no authority to arbitrarily impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the U.S. law that Trump has cited in executing his tariff policy.

The civil complaint comes more than a week after a group of five small businesses filed a similar lawsuit against Trump in the same court, challenging the legality of the new tariffs on the same grounds.

On Tuesday, a three-judge panel in the court denied a motion by the plaintiffs in that case seeking a temporary restraining order that would suspend Trump’s new tariffs pending the outcome of the case.

In addition to New York, the plaintiffs in the new lawsuit filed Wednesday include Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oregon, and Vermont.

“Not once has any other President used IEEPA to impose tariffs. In the nearly five decades since IEEPA was enacted, no other President has imposed tariffs based on the existence of any national emergency, despite global anti-narcotics campaigns spearheaded by the United States and longstanding trade deficits,” the states’ suit says.

“Because these tariffs are unlawful, this Court should declare that they are not in force, enjoin the Defendant agencies and officers from enforcing them, and vacate the agency actions implementing them.”

CNBC has requested comment from the White House on the lawsuit.

Since taking office, Trump has issued a series of executive orders imposing a range of tariffs on foreign imports, including a 145% tariff on products made in China, and tariffs of 25% on products from Canada and Mexico. Imports from most of the other countries in the world were slapped with a 10% tariff by Trump.

“The Constitution assigns to Congress, not the President, the ‘Power To lay and
collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises,’ ” the suit says.

“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,” the suit says.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said, “President Trump’s insane tariff scheme is not only economically reckless – it is illegal.”

“Arizona cannot afford President Trump’s massive tax increase. No matter what the White House claims, tariffs are a tax that will be passed on to Arizona consumers,” Mayes said.