President Donald Trump holds a chart during a speech at an event announcing sweeping global tariffs in the Rose Garden at the White House on April 2, 2025. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON – More than 200 Democratic lawmakers and one Republican are calling on the U.S. Supreme Court to end President Donald Trump’s drastic global emergency tariffs.
207 members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate argued in an amicus brief brief delayed Friday, it was reported that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) does not authorize the president to unilaterally impose tariffs. Lawmakers urged justices to agree with a lower court’s ruling that Trump’s sweeping import taxes imposed under IEEPA violate the Constitution, which gives Congress tariff powers.
“IEEPA does not contain any of the hallmarks of legislation that delegates tariff authority to the executive, such as product- or country-specific restrictions, upper limits on tariff increases, procedural safeguards, public input, cooperation with Congress, or time limits,” the lawmakers wrote.
“In the fifty years since the enactment of IEEPA, no president of either party has ever invoked IEEPA to impose tariffs.”
Sense. Jeanne Shaheen, DN.H. and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., ranking members of the Senate Foreign Relations and Finance Committees, were signed by 36 members of the upper chamber. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska, was the only person to sign the agreement with the GOP. A majority of House Democrats, 171 in total, also joined in.
Lawmakers filed a friend-of-the-court brief ahead of arguments scheduled before the Supreme Court next week on the legality of Trump’s emergency tariffs.
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in delayed August sustained lower court ruling overturning the IEEPA administration’s tariffs.
The Senate is expected to vote this week on three bills aimed at eliminating Trump’s import taxes on products from Canada, Brazil and other countries subject to emergency tariffs.
Fentanyl, trade deficits as emergencies
In February and March, Trump began imposing IEEPA tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico, holding those countries responsible for illegal smuggling of fentanyl into the U.S.
President escalation extraordinary tariffs for the following months on goods from around the world, declaring trade deficits a national emergency. A trade deficit means that the United States imports more goods from a country than that country buys from US suppliers.
Domestic businesses and buyers currently pay the U.S. government tariff rates ranging from 10% to 50% on most imported products. The government collected $195 billion in tariffs this year, according to the U.S. Treasury monthly statement.
State-owned AG companies and enterprises filed a complaint with the court
Several private companies and more than a dozen states have sued Trump over his exploit of the emergency law to impose high import taxes.
Arizona, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico and Oregon were among the states led by Democratic state attorneys general to file the lawsuit.
Among the companies that have sued the Trump administration is the lead plaintiff, VOS Selections, a New York company that imports wines and spirits from 16 countries, according to its website.
Other plaintiffs include a Utah-based plastics manufacturer, a Virginia-based maker of children’s electric kits, a Pennsylvania-based fishing equipment company and a Vermont-based women’s cycling clothing company.
American Court of International Trade ruled Trump’s IEEPA tariffs illegal in delayed May.
