In a lawsuit filed Thursday, two dozen states moved to stop the Trump administration from imposing a new 15% global tariff on imports.
President Trump declared a 10% global tariff two weeks ago after the Supreme Court struck down some of the tariffs he had imposed on trading partners during his first year in office. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday the global levy would be going up to 15% as soon as this week.
Trump is claiming that Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 allows him to impose tariffs as high as 15% for a period of 150 days before needing the consent of Congress. The lawsuit — led by attorneys general from Oregon, Arizona, California and New York — argues that Section 122 applies only to specific circumstances related to international payment flows and was never meant to authorize across-the-board tariffs.
The suit also argues that Trump’s tariffs will increase costs for consumers, businesses and states.
Inconveniently for the Trump administration, the Justice Department argued last year that Section 122 does not apply to the issue of trade deficits — the main focus of Trump’s effort.
Nevertheless, legal experts say there’s a decent chance that Trump could prevail in the suit, since the courts tend to be reluctant to override White House policy and the Section 122 tariffs could conceivably be interpreted along lines favorable to the administration.
Judge orders collections halt: Late Wednesday, a federal judge ordered U.S. Customs and Border Protection to stop collecting fees from Trump’s tariffs imposed under the authority of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the use of which was rejected by the Supreme Court two weeks ago.
Judge Richard K. Eaton of the United States Court of International Trade ruled that imported goods that were still being evaluated under the IEEPA should be reevaluated without reference to those tariffs. He also said that “all importers of record” should benefit from the Supreme Court’s ruling, suggesting to some legal experts that any firm or individual who paid the IEEPA tariff would be entitled to a refund.
U.S. importers paid more than $130 billion under the IEEPA tariffs. Many are hoping for full refunds, but the courts still need to define a mechanism for providing repayments, and to clarify whether all importers are entitled to receive them, or just those operating in a potentially narrower timeframe.