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Tariff Challengers Really Don’t Want Their Cases Heard in New York City

Businesses and an indigenous tribe fighting President Donald Trump’s tariffs are pushing to keep their cases in Florida and Montana—and away from New York, whose U.S. Court of International Trade has already refused to pause the duties for review.

The Trump administration has pushed to transfer those cases to the trade court, which, under 28 U.S.C. § 1581(i)(1)(B), maintains exclusive jurisdiction over laws “providing for… tariffs.”

But challengers who filed their lawsuits in district courts in Montana and Florida argue that the jurisdiction clause doesn’t apply, as the International Emergency Economic Powers Act—the law used by Trump to enact the duties—allegedly does not provide for tariffs.

“IEEPA authorizes the President to counter foreign threats by imposing the economic sanctions it describes. It does not permit him to order Americans to pay tariffs. IEEPA cannot, therefore, provide the express authorization that would be required to eliminate this Court’s… jurisdiction,” a group of businesses represented by the New Civil Liberties Alliance told the Florida federal court in a Monday court filing…

May 7, 2025


Originally Published in New York Law Journal

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