Labor & Employment Law Daily Wrap Up, LITIGATION NEWS, TRENDS—Businesses sue Trump administration over tariffs, citing employee impacts among list of concerns, (Apr 15, 2025)

By Brandi O. Brown, J.D.

The lawsuit has been filed in the U.S. Court of International Trade.

On Monday, a group of businesses, all of which import products, parts, or raw materials—including an importer of small-production wines, spirits, and sakes; a plastic pipe and plumping fittings manufacturer; a company that makes electronic kits and musical instruments; a company that produces and sells sportfishing tackle and related gear; and a seller of women’s cycling apparel—filed suit against President Trump and various members of his administration over his executive orders and related tariffs.

Labor impacts. Among other concerns, at least one of the plaintiffs alleges that it will be unable to pay its employees because of these actions and another alleges that it will be unable to grow its business and create more jobs as a result.

They allege that Trump’s actions and his claim to have “the authority to unilaterally levy tariffs on goods imported from any and every country in the world, at any rate, calculated via any methodology—or mere caprice—immediately, with no notice, or public comment, or phase-in, or delay in implementation, despite massive economic impacts that are likely to do severe damage to the global economy” is not a power “actually granted by statute.” If it were, the complaint states, “this power would be an unlawful delegation of legislative power to the executive without any intelligible principle to limit his discretion.”

Not authorized by IEEPA. Congress has not delegated such a power, they allege, and the statute invoked by the President—the International Emergency Economic Powers Act—does not authorize him to issue unilateral, across-the-board worldwide tariffs. The justification offered by the President, they allege, does not meet the IEEPA’s standards.

They include two counts in their complaint. First, that the President’s action levying tariffs exceeds his statutory authority. Second, that “[i]f the IEEPA grants broad, unlimited authority to issue tariffs worldwide to the President, it is an unconstitutional delegation of legislative authority.”

“This Court should declare the President’s unprecedented power grab illegal,” they argue, “enjoin the operation of the executive actions that purport to impose these tariffs under the IEEPA, and reaffirm this country’s core founding principle: there shall be no taxation without representation.”

The case is No. 25-00066.

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