MANHATTAN (CN) — Twelve states on Wednesday sued the Trump administration over its sweeping tariffs that have upended markets and spurred a global trade war.
The attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon and Vermont filed the complaint in the New York City-based U.S. Court of International Trade, challenging the president’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
“No statute authorizes the President to issue the IEEPA Tariff Orders. The only statute conveying substantive authority to the president cited in the orders is IEEPA. But IEEPA does not authorize the imposition of such tariffs, if it authorizes tariffs at all,” the states say.
According to the state leaders, President Donald Trump has effectively raises taxes on Americans — a power that goes beyond what the act affords him.
“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. “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. His tariffs are unlawful and if not stopped, they will lead to more inflation, unemployment, and economic damage.”
The coalition of states seeks a court order halting the tariffs imposed under the act, including those Trump paused on April 9 for a 90-day period.
“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 states say in the lawsuit.
Increased unemployment, inflation and slow economic growth that threatens Americans’ wages are all potential risks if Trump is allowed to continue the tariffs, the states claim, including by increasing the cost of supplies like electronics and building materials.
Trump issued his first set of tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China on Feb. 1 and followed it up with his much derided worldwide tariffs Apr. 1.
New York officials cited economists’ estimate that the tariffs will cost the average U.S. family thousands of dollars each year, and the New York City comptroller’s finding that even a mild tariff-fueled recession would kill more than 35,000 jobs in the Big Apple alone.
In New York, state agencies could face a cost increase of more than $100 million, state officials said, and Canada’s retaliatory tariffs would spike state residents’ energy bills.
Empire State officials pointed to small businesses facing instability, too, finding an example in the Cortland Standard — “one of the oldest family-owned newspapers in the country” — which said it would stop publication in part because of Trump’s tariff on newsprint.