Lawsuits everywhere – except where they really matter

Lawsuits everywhere – except where they really matter

The excesses of the Biden Administration were tempered by the republican AGs who filed 133 suits. Well 19 democrat AGs have sued over Trump’s order on federal elections. Other suits by democrat AGs include suing RFJ, jr over canceled health research, suits over plans to eliminate several federal agencies, suits over federal grants freeze, over education department firings, over DOGE access to sensitive data and over birthright citizenship among others. So far over 143 lawsuits have been filed by the democrat AGs and this does not include all those filed by private organizations over immigration and transgender rights. All of the democrat lawsuits are aimed at protecting their constituents deemed to be threatened by Trump’s actions.

However, to my knowledge no lawsuit has been filled by a democrat AG on perhaps the most important issue – the imposition of tariffs. In fact, only two lawsuits have been filed to date. The first is by a conservative legal group over Trump’s power to impose tariffs on China. The group called the New Civil Liberties Alliance filed suit that Trump lacked the legal authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The suit argues that Trump had “misused” emergency powers, “usurped Congress’s right to control tariffs and upset the Constitution’s separation of powers.” The lawsuit asks a judge to block implementation and enforcement of the tariffs and undo Trump’s changes to the U.S. tariff schedule. The organization said it “does not quibble” with Trump’s declaration of an opioid-related emergency, “but it does take issue with his decision to impose tariffs in response, without legal authority to do so.” The suit was filed in Florida.

The second lawsuit was also filed in Florida and was by a small company. Simplified, a stationery company, filed suit to stop the Chinese tariffs saying that the increased tariffs cause it financial harm. It too is challenging the use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose the tariffs. Simplified says that “Trade laws authorize the President to impose tariffs “only on industries or countries that meet specified criteria, and only under specified conditions, after following specified procedures. They also “require advance investigations, detailed factual findings, and a close fit between the statutory authority and a tariff’s scope.”

The Wall Street Journal says that Congress has given the President discrete authority to impose tariffs of up to 15% only for as long as 150 days to remedy “large and serious” trade deficits. Mr. Trump used IEEPA to circumvent those limits.” Trump has clearly violated the law. It is curious that the democrat AGs did not initiate any suits on this issue. Also the Congress has done absolutely nothing except that the democrats passed a resolution in the Senate wanting to claw back the president’s power to impose tariffs unilaterally. Only Rand Paul amongst the republicans has the guts to oppose Trump on tariffs. However, with all the moaning and teeth gnashing about Biden’s abuse of power, one would have hoped that there would have been enough angst on both sides of the aisle to rein in Trump’s excesses which singlehandedly have plunged the world into economic chaos.