The first known lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s tariffs has been filed by the New Liberties Civil Alliance on behalf of a Florida stationery business entrepreneur who is arguing that the president “unlawfully” overstepped his authority to impose the levies.
Lifestyle influencer and Simplified stationery business founder Emily Ley filed the federal lawsuit in Pensacola, Florida against Trump and his administration on Thursday.
“These unlawfully implemented tariffs cause harm to American businesses, American jobs, and American consumers, and will be the end of many American dreams,” Ley said in a post on social media the day after Trump announced a series of steep tariffs on nations around the word that sent global stock markets plunging.
The suit specifically targets Trump’s 20 percent tariff on goods from China he imposed early last month. Ley’s Florida-based small business purchases products from China to sell, including planners.
The lawsuit is challenging Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA), which requires extensive investigations before sanctions can be imposed. Trump has used opioid trafficking from China as a reason for the “emergency” tariffs against the country.
The lawsuit contends that Trump has not shown that his actions are “necessary” or tailored to address a drug trafficking emergency. In fact, lawyers note, Trump has said the actual reason for the tariffs is to reduce a trade deficit.
In any case, the IEEPA allows for asset freezes, trade embargos and similar sanctions, but not tariffs, the suit argues.
The law “authorizes presidents to order sanctions as a rapid response to international emergencies. It does not allow a president to impose tariffs on the American people … Presidents can impose tariffs only when Congress grants permission,” the suit states.
“Congress passed the IEEPA to counter external emergencies, not to grant presidents a blank check to write domestic economic policy,” it states.
“In the IEEPA’s almost 50-year history, no previous president has used it to impose tariffs. Which is not surprising, since the statute does not even mention tariffs, nor does it say anything else suggesting it authorizes presidents to tax American citizens,” the lawsuit notes.
The suit is asking a judge to declare Trump’s Chinese tariffs unlawful and block their implementation.
Allies of the president have argued that small and local companies should use American manufacturing for their products, which Ley has argued her company has already tried.
“We pursued domestic manufacturing from the outset,” the entrepreneur said in an Instagram post. “Our first planners were made in the U.S. in 2012. Each unit cost $38 to make. The US did not/does not yet have the infrastructure to support what we make.”
The lawsuit notes that paying the tariffs will take away funds that “could be used to pay salaries, fund growth, and pour into communities.” Those funds will now instead force small businesses such as Simplified to raise prices or draw down on staff, the legal filing states.
Trump initially imposed a 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods in a Feb. 1 executive order, then doubled it in another order March 3.
He boosted that to a total tariff of 54 percent on Wednesday.
Beijing on Friday attacked “bullying” Trump and imposed an across-the-board tariff of 34 percent on all American products sold to China.
The White House could not immediately be reached for comment on the lawsuit.
