Trump’s China tariffs face legal challenge from conservative group calling them ‘unlawful'

A conservative legal group is challenging President Donald Trump's tariffs on China, calling them "an unlawful attempt" to make Americans pay higher taxes on Chinese imports. 

The New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) filed an initial complaint in Florida district court Thursday, challenging Trump's "unlawful use of emergency power to impose a tariff on all imports from China."

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

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Trump issued an executive order on Feb. 1 titled "Imposing Duties to Address the Synthetic Opioid Supply Chain in the People’s Republic of China," and amended it on Mar. 3 to raise tariffs on Chinese imports from 10% to 20%.

Plaintiff Emily Ley, owner of Simplified, a Pensacola, Florida-based company, argues Trump's invocation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose the tariffs is unlawful. The plaintiff also argues that her business will be harmed as a result of Trump's action. 

"The key thing for all of this is that IEEPA does not provide for the tariff power, and you know that because when Congress does do it, they use the word, and they say how the president is supposed to do it," John Vecchione, senior litigation counsel at NCLA, told Fox News Digital. 

Vecchione notes that the complaint delineates the various statutes Trump used in his first term to impose tariffs, saying that in this instance, he is "using the wrong statute."

"Here, [Trump] declares an emergency, and then he says that his tariffs fit the emergency, that they're necessary for the emergency," Vecchione said. "IEEPA requires that they be necessary for the emergency, and they're not."

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The plaintiff argues that the law permits the president to "order sanctions as a rapid response to international emergencies," but does not authorize him to "impose tariffs on the American people."

"President Trump’s executive orders imposing a China tariff are, therefore, ultra vires and unconstitutional," the complaint states.

If the president is granted such authority, the group argues, he would have "nearly unlimited authority to commandeer Congress’s power over tariffs."

"He would be empowered to declare a national emergency based on some long-running national problem," the complaint continues, "then impose tariffs purportedly in the name of that emergency – thus sidestepping the detailed constraints Congress has placed on the tariff authority it has granted."

NCLA is asking the court to block the administration from implementing or enforcing the executive orders and to vacate "all resulting modifications" to the tariff schedule.

In response to the lawsuit, White House principal deputy press secretary Harrison Fields defended the executive orders, telling Fox News Digital, "President Trump has broad authority to impose tariffs to address issues of national emergency, such as the opioid pandemic. The Trump administration looks forward to victory in court."

The suit comes just days after the president unveiled his tariff plan during a speech in the White House Rose Garden at a highly anticipated "Make America Wealthy Again" event. 

"Now it's our turn to prosper, and in so doing, use trillions and trillions of dollars to reduce our taxes and pay down our national debt," Trump said on April 2. "And it will all happen very quickly. With today's action, we are finally going to be able to make America great again, greater than ever before."

HOW WE GOT TO LIBERATION DAY: A LOOK AT TRUMP’S PAST COMMENTS ON TARIFFS

Trump was joined by several Cabinet members in the Rose Garden on Thursday for his first official presidential event since taking office in January. During the speech, Trump announced that China would be hit with a 34% tariff.

In response, China declared retaliatory measures on Friday, saying it would impose matching 34% tariffs on U.S. goods.

The new tariffs are set to take effect April 10, according to The Wall Street Journal.

"China played it wrong, they panicked – the one thing they cannot afford to do," Trump wrote Friday on Truth Social.

Fox News Digital's Emma Colton and Greg Norman contributed to this report.