{"id":13019,"date":"2026-03-05T15:03:32","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T22:03:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/trumps-second-tariff-push-faces-immediate-legal-challenge-from-two-dozen-states-including-new-mexico\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:30:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:30:31","slug":"trumps-second-tariff-push-faces-immediate-legal-challenge-from-two-dozen-states-including-new","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/trumps-second-tariff-push-faces-immediate-legal-challenge-from-two-dozen-states-including-new\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s second tariff push faces immediate legal challenge from two dozen states, including New Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"President
President Donald Trump speaks during a press briefing at the White House, Friday, Feb. 20, 2026, in Washington. (Evan Vucci\/Associated Press)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Two dozen states asked a federal court to block the tariffs that President Donald Trump instituted last month after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down his previous tariffs.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit, filed in the federal Court of International Trade, aims to strike down the president\u2019s latest attempt at imposing tariffs, calling them illegal and requesting refunds to states. Last month, the Supreme Court ruled that Trump overstepped his authority implementing sweeping tariffs last year.<\/p>\n

Immediately after the ruling, Trump announced a new set of tariffs based on a different law. The new tariffs use Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 and set the global tariff rate at 10%, though the administration has suggested that they intend to increase it to 15%.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe President is using his authority granted by Congress to address fundamental international payments problems and to deal with our country\u2019s large and serious balance-of-payments deficits,\u201d White House spokesman Kush Desai told States Newsroom. \u201cThe Administration will vigorously defend the President\u2019s action in court.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawsuit contends that the statute the White House is relying on has never been put into use \u2013 and the Trump administration is applying it improperly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis statute has never been used ever at all in the history of this country,\u201d Oregon AG Dan Rayfield said on a conference call with reporters about the lawsuit. Rayfield called the law \u201carchaic,\u201d adding that it was originally intended to be used when the country still operated on the gold standard, which the country moved away from for a fiat system.<\/p>\n

In their lawsuit, the 24 states said Trump\u2019s justification for using the law \u201cis fatally flawed\u201d because he redefines key terms to force the statute to authorize tariffs. Specifically, they argue, the term \u201cbalance of payments\u201d refers to a currency crisis \u201cthat was of great concern\u201d in the early 1970s when U.S. currency was tied directly to gold \u2013 but that doesn\u2019t apply since the nation ended the gold standard in 1976.<\/p>\n

Since the 1974 law was crafted to deal with issues relating to the country\u2019s economy under a different monetary system and does not address tariffs, the AGs contend that its use is wholly illegal.<\/p>\n

\u201cA trade deficit is not a \u2018balance of payments\u2019 deficit. These are not the same thing at all. The president doesn\u2019t know the difference or he doesn\u2019t care,\u201d Arizona AG Kris Mayes said. \u201cEither way, he is breaking the law again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawsuit also contends that Trump\u2019s tariffs violate the Constitution\u2019s separation-of-powers principle, which was a core argument in the first tariffs lawsuit \u2013 one with which the Supreme Court agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he had the support of Congress, he could have legally passed his tariffs by now,\u201d Rayfield said. \u201cBut the truth is he doesn\u2019t have the support of Congress, nor does he have the support of the American people, and he is doing an end run.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the first tariffs lawsuit took nearly a year to resolve, Mayes said the AGs are confident the recent Supreme Court ruling means they will swiftly win injunctions against the implementation of Trump\u2019s second round of tariffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are hoping to get a quicker decision based on the very resounding, we think, victory we achieved in the Supreme Court,\u201d she said, adding that they are hoping for a preliminary injunction against the tariffs being implemented in the near term as the case works its way through the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re pretty confident or we would not be here,\u201d New York AG Letitia James said, letting out a small chuckle, when asked if they believe they will be successful in this second lawsuit.<\/p>\n

James herself has had her own personal legal battles with Trump whose Department of Justice indicted her on two counts of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution.<\/p>\n

The indictment was thrown out and two grand juries declined separate efforts by the DOJ to bring the charges back.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day for us this is not about political gamesmanship \u2013 this is about making sure our communities don\u2019t pay the price for President Donald Trump\u2019s inability to take an L,\u201d California AG Rob Bonta said.<\/p>\n

Attorneys general from the states of Arizona, Oregon, California and New York are leading the charge on the new lawsuit. They are joined by the AGs of Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. The governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania are also part of the new lawsuit.<\/p>\n

This story was originally produced by Arizona Mirror, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Source New Mexico, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

N.M. AG Torrez: \u2018This coalition will continue working to challenge unlawful actions that put the American economy at risk\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13020,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,138,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-13019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-new-mexico","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13019"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18773,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13019\/revisions\/18773"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13019"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=13019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}