NEW YORK — Roughly a week after California filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration challenging the president’s authority to use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China, 12 other states filed a similar suit Wednesday.
Saying the tariffs illegally imposed an unprecedented tax hike on Americans, the attorneys general for New York, Arizona, Colorado, Maine and eight other states are seeking a court order to stop the Trump administration from enforcing or implementing tariffs that have disrupted global trade.
“Donald Trump promised that he would lower prices and ease the cost of living, but these illegal tariffs will have the exact opposite effect on American families,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. “His tariffs are unlawful, and if not stopped, they will lead to more inflation, unemployment and economic damage.”
Filed in the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York, the lawsuit alleges Trump had no authority to impose tariffs claiming the country is experiencing an emergency. The attorneys general contend Congress did not grant authority to the president to impose the tariffs and that the administration broke the law by enacting tariffs with executive and agency orders, as well as social media posts.
The lawsuit seeks to halt the imposition of additional reciprocal tariffs Trump announced, then paused, earlier this month.
Trump has imposed 25% tariffs on more than half of the goods coming into the United States from Mexico and Canada and a 145% tariff on imports from China. He also has enacted 10% baseline tariffs on dozens of other nations.
The administration has argued the International Emergency Economic Powers Act enables a president to freeze and block transactions in response to foreign threats. When first announcing the tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico in February, Trump cited “an extraordinary threat posed by illegal aliens and drugs such as fentanyl.”
The lawsuit says the IEEPA, which Congress passed in 1977, has never been used to unilaterally impose tariffs. Signed by President Jimmy Carter, the law was designed to clarify a president’s power during declared national emergencies having to do with threats that originate outside the country.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
In their filing, the attorneys general contend the IEEPA tariffs will harm states and their residents by making a wide variety of goods more expensive and difficult to find. In New York, the city comptroller said a mild, tariff-induced recession could prompt 35,000 jobs to be lost.
The other states listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Oregon, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico and Vermont.