US President Donald Trump and New York State Attorney General Letitia James.
Brian Snyder David Dee Delgado | Reuters
New York Attorney General Letitia James and top prosecutors in 23 other states plan to sue again to block President Donald Trump’s global tariff plan, just days after a landmark Supreme Court ruling reversed the president’s previous efforts.
Their lawsuit is scheduled to be filed Thursday in the International Trade Court, which would rule President Trump’s latest tariffs illegal and order refunds to states.
Last month, the Supreme Court struck down most of President Trump’s sweeping “Emancipation Day” tariffs enacted last year, saying the president’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs was improper.
But the president sought to keep his signature policy alive by immediately announcing new tariffs under another law, Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. That global tariff rate is currently set at 10%, but the Trump administration has said it plans to raise it to 15%.
“After the Supreme Court rejected the President’s first attempt to impose across-the-board tariffs, the President expects to cause further economic disruption and Americans to pay for it,” James said in a statement provided to CNBC.
“President Trump is ignoring the law and the Constitution by raising substantial taxes on consumers and small businesses,” she said.
The move by a coalition of state attorneys general, most of whom were part of President Trump’s initial successful effort to block the tariffs, will add to the ongoing international uncertainty created by the president’s tariff policies. A federal court on Wednesday ruled that companies that paid the tariffs that were canceled last month by the Supreme Court must pay billions of dollars in refunds.
abuse of the law
In the lawsuit, James and his coalition will argue that Trump is abusing Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which they argue was designed not to address trade imbalances, but to address specific currency imbalances that could occur when the United States was on the gold standard.
The attorney general will also argue that the tariffs violate the Constitution’s separation of powers, which gives Congress the power to impose tariffs, and that Trump’s levies violate the requirements of the 1974 Trade Act that they be applied consistently across countries.
James said the effort is “a clear attempt to evade the Supreme Court’s decision in litigation against tariffs imposed under IEEPA.”
Last year, James and 11 other states sued the Trump administration to halt the initial tariffs. The effort was ultimately combined with lawsuits from small businesses affected by the tariffs before the Supreme Court, resulting in one of the biggest legal setbacks of Mr. Trump’s second term in office.
Mr. Trump and Mr. James have their own legal entanglements.
The administration’s Justice Department indicted James in October on two counts of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution.
But James will not be indicted after a judge dropped the charges and two grand jurors each declined to restart those efforts.
Correction: The lawsuit from James and other state attorneys general is scheduled to be filed Thursday. Previous versions had incorrect timing.
