12 states sue Trump over tariffs: ‘Economically reckless and illegal’

A coalition of 12 US states filed a lawsuit on Wednesday challenging President Donald Trump’s controversial tariff policies. They said that Trump’s tariff policy is unlawful and has brought chaos to the American economy.

The lawsuit said the policy put in place by President Donald Trump has been subject to his “whims rather than the sound exercise of lawful authority.”

The states listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit were Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York and Vermont.

It challenged Trump’s claim that he could arbitrarily impose tariffs based on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The suit asks the court to declare the tariffs to be illegal, and to block government agencies and its officers from enforcing them.

“This is not only economically reckless — it is illegal,” said Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, one of the lead plaintiffs. She blasted the tariff regime as “insane,” accusing the Trump administration of bypassing legal checks and ignoring economic consequences.

According to the lawsuit, the tariffs were “driven by presidential whims rather than the sound exercise of lawful authority,” with critics accusing the Trump White House of using emergency powers to sidestep Congress and impose levies on imported goods, especially from Asia and Europe.

The lawsuit maintained that only Congress has the power to impose tariffs and that the president can only invoke the International Emergency Economic Powers Act when an emergency presents an “unusual and extraordinary threat” from abroad.

“By claiming the authority to impose immense and ever-changing tariffs on whatever goods entering the United States he chooses, for whatever reason he finds convenient to declare an emergency, the President has upended the constitutional order and brought chaos to the American economy,” the lawsuit said.

Last week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, sued the Trump administration in US District Court in the Northern District of California over the tariff policy.

(With inputs from Associated Press)

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