“All options are being considered,” one of those people, a senior trade association executive, said.
At issue is a nearly-50-year-old law, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, that Trump is citing to impose both the duties on China and the global “reciprocal tariffs” he announced this week. The 1977 law gives the president broad authority to respond to a national emergency. But Trump is the first president to use it to impose tariffs, which is a power the U.S. Constitution assigned to Congress. And legal scholars say it’s possible a judge would find such a move illegal, unraveling the White House’s bid to hit trading partners with duties not seen in a century.
“IEEPA has a long list of things that the president can do and nowhere does it say ‘tariffs,’” said Liza Goitein, senior director of the liberty and national security program at the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan law and policy institute. “There is absolutely a basis on which to challenge the use of IEEPA for tariffs based on the Supreme Court’s own jurisprudence,” Goitein added, and “there’s some likelihood of success on this lawsuit on that grounds.”
John Vecchione, a lawyer for NCLA, which filed the lawsuit against the China tariffs on behalf of Emily Ley Paper Inc, elaborated. “If this was ‘Red Dawn’ and the enemy was coming across the border and the president invoked IEEPA, he still can’t put in tariffs,” Vecchione said.
“It’s not what it’s for. He can embargo [our enemies]. He can cut off their banking. He can do a lot under IEEPA, but tariffs are not in it.”
“One of the ways any normal person would know this, is it’s been around 50 years since the Iranian crisis. No one has ever imposed a tariff under it,” Vecchione added.
