Trump administration sued over Chinese import tariffs by conservative legal group

FLORIDA – New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), a conservative legal group, on April 3 filed what it said was the first lawsuit seeking to block US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports, saying he overstepped his authority.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Florida, alleges that Mr Trump lacked the legal authority to impose the

sweeping tariffs unveiled

on April 2 as well as duties authorised on Feb 1 under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

“By invoking emergency power to impose an across-the-board tariff on imports from China that the statute does not authorise, President Trump has misused that power, usurped Congress’s right to control tariffs, and upset the Constitution’s separation of powers,” NCLA senior litigation counsel Andrew Morris said in a statement.

White House representatives did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

NCLA, a public interest law firm – filed the lawsuit on behalf of Simplified, a Florida-based retailer of home management products.

Mr Trump on April 2 announced that

China would be hit with a 34 per cent tariff

, on top of the 20 per cent he imposed earlier in 2025,

bringing the total new levies to 54 per cent

.

The lawsuit asks a judge to block implementation and enforcement of the tariffs and undo Mr Trump’s changes to the US tariff schedule.

The lawsuit says presidents can only impose tariffs with Congress’ permission and under complex trade statutes spelling out how and when they can be authorised.

“Such statutes require advance investigations, detailed factual findings, and a close fit between the statutory authority and a tariff’s scope,” the lawsuit says.

The law Mr Trump invoked has never been used to impose tariffs and only allows presidents to take actions that are necessary to address a specific emergency, the lawsuit said.

Mr Trump has declared an

emergency over China’s alleged complicity

in the US opioid epidemic, framing tariffs as a negotiating tool for ending the influx of the deadly drugs.

The lawsuit says that justification is a pretext for imposing tariffs aimed at reducing US trade deficits while raising tax revenue.

The case was assigned to US District Judge Kent Wetherell, a Trump appointee who had halted a key part of former US president Joe Biden’s immigration policy in 2023. REUTERS