Leading the charge against what they describe as the Trump administration's overreach, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and his congressional allies are rallying behind a filed amicus brief, challenging the use of emergency powers to impose tariffs. These lawmakers argue that the president's application of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to enact broad tariffs is too far, stepping outside the bounds of statutory intention. The brief filed in the case, Oregon et al. v. Trump et al., firmly positions the IEEPA as unfit for tariff imposition.
Historically, IEEPA has not been associated with the authority to impose tariffs, a point that Senators Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., along with 33 other senators, emphasized in an earlier amicus brief. Despite their initial effort urging the immediate suspension of the tariffs, the Federal Circuit had declined to halt these contested tariffs while the merits of the appeal were under review. "This isn't a close call – IEEPA doesn't give the president ANY tariff authority, let alone the power to slap sweeping tariffs on products from almost every country on earth," said Wyden, as reported by his own press release.
According to the brief, Congress had structured tariff statutes with specific limitations, which the current use of IEEPA doesn't adhere to. Details such as product specificity, defined geographical targets, price caps, procedural checks, and temporal bounds are notably absent in this use of emergency powers. The lawmakers consider these safeguards essential to balanced legislation. Furthermore, their brief accentuates a history of restraint, where no other president, across party lines, has claimed tariff authority under this statute in IEEPA's five-decade existence.
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