Oregon's Attorney General leading 12-state lawsuit challenging Trump tariffs

It warmed my Oregon heart to see my state prominently featured in a Politico story today, "'There is No Rational Basis Behind What the President is Trying to Accomplish': Oregon's Attorney General is suing to block Trump's tariffs -- and he might win." Excerpt:

Attorney General Dan Rayfield

Dan Rayfield, Oregon’s rookie attorney general, says he didn’t want to spend his first months in office fighting presidential edicts in court. But along with the consumer protection and law-and-order duties that more typically define his role, the Democrat is now a key combatant in Donald Trump’s trade war, leading a 12-state lawsuit challenging the president’s sweeping tariff regime.

Rayfield, 46, is among the newest in a band of Democratic state attorneys general that’s been strikingly coordinated in challenging and stalling Trump’s avalanche of executive orders slashing federal spending, restricting birthright citizenship, gutting diversity and inclusion programs and much more since Jan. 20.

The looming impact of the tariffs in his trade-dependent Pacific Northwest state made taking the lead on the lawsuit an easy call, says Rayfield, who served as speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives before winning the AG post in November.

“Right now, in Canada, they are literally pulling [Oregon] products off of shelves,” he told POLITICO Magazine last week as he attended meetings in New York.

Rayfield has worked closely with Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes in leading the suit, which challenges Trump’s invocation of the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, enacted in 1977 and now used for the first time to impose tariffs.

“It’s an unprecedented misuse of emergency powers,” said Rayfield.

California was the first state to file suit over the tariffs last month (perhaps unsurprisingly, given its economic heft and Gov. Gavin Newson’s political profile). But Rayfield’s suit — State of Oregon, et al., v. Trump — is expected to be taken up first, and will likely be cited in the U.S. Court of International Trade this week, where judges will consider a private company’s challenge to the tariffs.

Here's the Introduction to the State of Oregon, et al., v. Trump lawsuit.

1. The Constitution assigns to Congress, not the President, the “Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises.” Art. I, § 8. Yet over the last three months, the President has imposed, modified, escalated, and suspended tariffs by executive order, memoranda, social media post, and agency decree. These edicts reflect a national trade policy that now hinges on the President’s whims rather than the sound exercise of his lawful authority. 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.

2. The President has no authority to arbitrarily impose tariffs as he has done here. The text and history of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA)—the statute the President has invoked for the most damaging of his tariffs—confirm that the President cannot impose such tariffs under that law. And even if it did, it would not allow the worldwide tariffs he has imposed, which were not a response to an emergency as IEEPA defines it and have no nexus to the circumstances that purported to justify them.

3. Because these tariffs are unlawful, this Court should declare that they are not in force, enjoin the Defendant agencies and officers from enforcing them, and vacate the agency actions implementing them.

The Oregon Department of Justice issued a May 7 media release about the lawsuit:

Attorney General Dan Rayfield today led a coalition of attorneys general in filing a motion for a preliminary injunction to halt implementation of President Trump’s illegal tariffs. The motion seeks a court order pausing the tariffs imposed under four of President Trump’s executive orders without congressional action.

“These tariffs are doing real damage to Oregonians and our small businesses. Families cannot be expected to pay more at the store at a time when they’re already struggling to afford the basics.” Rayfield said. “The President can’t just slap on tariffs that hurt working people without following the law. I don’t know many families who can afford an extra $3800 a year.”

The motion asks the U.S. Court of International Trade to order federal agencies to stop collecting illegal tariffs President Trump imposed on most products worldwide. These tariffs impose a 145 percent tariff on most products from China, a 25 percent tariff on most products from Canada and Mexico, and 10 percent tariffs on most products from the rest of the world. It also asks the Court to put on hold President Trump’s plan to raise tariffs on imports from 56 other trading partners on July 9.

One analysis found that the average household will pay $3800 extra annually due to the tariffs. Businesses say they are already struggling. Todd Nelson is the co-owner of Bountiful Farms in Woodburn, and said the relationships he has spent years building with Canada have been greatly damaged.

“Many Canadian nurseries now have ‘Buy Canadian First’ initiatives, and just in the last few months, I’ve had several long-standing orders canceled. It’s not just disappointing – it’s heartbreaking,” Nelson said.

Oregon state agencies and universities are also bracing for significant cost increases, with budgets set before tariffs were in place. This will ultimately result in reduced services or delayed investments.

Economic analysis submitted to the court shows that state and local governments in the 12 states joining the motion stand to pay at least $3.4 billion per year in additional costs due to the tariffs. The states also submitted a Federal Reserve report noting that businesses “expected elevated input cost growth resulting from tariffs” and that “Most businesses expected to pass through additional costs to customers.”

Under Article I of the Constitution, only Congress has the “Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises.” The executive orders cite the powers granted by the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), but that law applies only when an emergency presents “unusual and extraordinary threat” from abroad and does not give the President the power to impose tariffs. Congress enacted IEEPA in 1977. No President had imposed tariffs based on IEEPA until President Trump did so this year.

The case is entitled State of Oregon, et al., v. Trump, et al. (Case No. 1:25-cv-00077-GSK-TMR-JAR) and is pending before a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of International Trade.

The case is led by Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield and Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes. Also joining the lawsuit are the attorneys general of Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York and Vermont.

Comments

[Rachael]

Do you think letters from the Salem community submitted to the Oregon Ethics Board would help push them towards investigating Hoy?

[Brian Hines]

Rachael, I don't think that's necessary. I'm confident the Oregon Government Ethics Commission will do the right thing when it considers whether to investigate Mayor Julie Hoy's actions. My concern is with how long it will take to conduct an investigation, should this happen, not the competence or wisdom of the investigators.