Cases
FIREDISC, Inc.; The Game Manufacturers Association; and Ryan Wholesale, Inc. v. President Donald J. Trump, et al.
CASE SUMMARY
Representing FIREDISC, the nonprofit Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA), and Ryan Wholesale, NCLA challenges President Trump’s unlawful attempt to impose widespread tariffs based on alleged “emergency” authority. He has cited the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), but that statute authorizes emergency actions like economic sanctions and asset freezes to protect the United States from foreign threats.
Article I, § 8 of the Constitution grants Congress sole authority to control tariffs, which legislators have done by passing detailed tariff statutes. The President cannot bypass those statutes by invoking “emergency” authority in another statute that does not mention tariffs. His attempt to use the IEEPA this way not only violates the law as written, but it also invites application of the Supreme Court’s Major Questions Doctrine, which tells courts not to discern policies of “vast economic and political significance” in a law without explicit congressional authorization. If the IEEPA were held to permit this executive order, then the statute would run afoul of the nondelegation doctrine because it lacks an “intelligible principle” to limit or guide the president’s discretion in imposing tariffs.