President Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs came under their first major legal challenge Monday, brought by a libertarian public-interest firm that argues the president overstepped his authority.
Trump’s April 2 announcement imposed a baseline 10 percent tariff on imports and targeted dozens of countries with higher “reciprocal” tariffs.
The announcement has rattled stock and bond markets, and Trump later announced the steeper tariffs would be reduced to 10 percent for 90 days to allow time for negotiations.
Monday’s lawsuit contests Trump’s ability to impose the tariffs unilaterally by invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The 1977 law provides the president with the authority to impose necessary economic sanctions to combat an “unusual and extraordinary threat,” but no previous president has leveraged it to impose tariffs.
“Our system is not set up so that one person in the system can have the power to impose taxes across the world economy. That’s not how our constitutional republic works,” Jeffrey Schwab, senior counsel at Liberty Justice Center, which is leading the lawsuit, said in an interview.
