12 US states sue Trump administration for illegal tax hikes

Twelve states filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration yesterday, accusing it of imposing illegal tax hikes on Americans through tariffs.

Trump imposed the tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which gives the president the authority to invoke these powers in response to unusual and extraordinary threats.

The lawsuit states that “in the nearly five decades since the IEEPA was enacted, no other president has imposed tariffs based on a national emergency, despite U.S.-led global counternarcotics campaigns and long-standing trade deficits.”

Although Congress passed the IEEPA, Congress never intended to use it to impose tariffs, the lawsuit states.