Lawsuit over Trump’s new tariffs goes to court. NC’s attorney general signed on.
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Oral arguments begin in U.S. Court of International Trade over Trump tariffs.
- North Carolina AG joined suit claiming Section 122 justification is legally flawed.
- Lawsuit warns tariffs raise household costs and urges Congress to provide refunds.
After North Carolina paid billions in tariffs last year, state Attorney General Jeff Jackson joined a lawsuit challenging the legality of President Donald Trump’s new tariffs he imposed under a section of the Trade Act.
Oral arguments for the case are scheduled to be heard on Friday in the U.S. Court of International Trade. Jackson said North Carolinians, particularly the state’s agriculture industry, could see higher prices for goods.
Jackson has sued Trump on several fronts, often joining with fellow Democratic attorneys general across the country.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 20 struck down tariffs that Trump imposed without congressional approval. Trump had cited the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 to do so.
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the specific law does not give Trump the power to impose those tariffs, and that the move exceeded the president’s power to regulate commerce.
Since then, the administration imposed new tariffs on most global goods under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 to address the U.S. trade deficit. The law allows the president to impose up to 15% tariffs for only 150 days, unless Congress extends them.
A 10% tariff went into effect on “most products worldwide” on Feb. 24, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit argues that while Section 122 does permit limited authority to use tariffs to handle “large and serious balance-of-payments deficits,” Trump’s justification for using it is “fatally flawed.”
It said “a balance of payments crisis is a currency crisis that was of great concern when Congress enacted Section 122, but which can no longer exist following the formal end of the fixed-rate currency exchange system in 1976.”
Jackson in a statement last month wrote that Trump’s new tariffs could cost North Carolina residents $800 to $1,300 per household this year, citing estimates from The Budget Lab at Yale University.
In a statement sent to The News & Observer on Thursday, Jackson said he is taking the federal government to court “because they broke the law again, they harmed North Carolinians, and I can prove it.”
“North Carolinians have already paid billions in unlawful tariffs. This is money that people could have used and needed to pay grocery bills, put gas in their cars, and run their small businesses,” he said. “These tariffs were set unlawfully, without Congress’s approval. People can’t afford them, and they’re illegal”
Trump on Wednesday also warned in a social media post that for any country supplying military weapons to Iran, he would impose 50% tariffs on “any and all” of its products that are sold to the United States.
In addition to Jackson, more than 10 attorneys general and two governors, all Democrats, are part of the lawsuit filed last month targeting the administration’s use of Section 122.
Jackson and many others on the lawsuit also called on Congress to refund businesses and consumers for costs that increased because of unlawful tariffs imposed under the IEEPA.
“Any refund process will unfortunately do little to make these households whole, as direct and indirect reimbursements are unlikely to reach families who paid more at the grocery store due to the tariffs,” the attorneys general wrote in a joint letter. “Congress should consider other ways to repair the financial impact felt by our most vulnerable consumers.”
