CASE
SUMMARY
NCLA urges the Supreme Court to rule that President Trump’s orders imposing tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) are unlawful. As NCLA has argued since the beginning in Simplified v. Trump, the first lawsuit ever against the IEEPA tariff orders, IEEPA never mentions tariffs or authorizes the President to enact them in declared emergencies. Representing Simplified, Kilo Brava, Bambola, Rokland, FIREDISC, and the Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA)—clients in Simplified and the similar FIREDISC v. Trump lawsuit—NCLA asks the Supreme Court to stop the illegal tariffs for good.
The President does not have any inherent authority to impose tariffs unilaterally. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in V.O.S. Selections that IEEPA does not authorize the specific tariffs President Trump has enacted. A concurrence in that case held that all such tariffs are unlawful, and the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia reached the same conclusion in Learning Resources. The Supreme Court must adopt the view of the V.O.S. Selections concurrence and the Learning Resources ruling, determining that IEEPA does not give the President any tariff power at all. The Justices should also rule that federal district courts have jurisdiction to hear these cases, since IEEPA is not a tariff statute.