A group of U.S. legislators in both the house and senate have filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court opposing U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs, soon after Trump announced plans to increase tariffs on Canada by 10 percent after terminating trade negotiations with the country in response to a television advertisement.
A group of 207 Congressional Democrats in the U.S. House and Senate, along with Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), filed the brief with the U.S. Supreme Court challenging Trump’s sweeping tariffs. The brief said Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Power Act (IEEPA) as a method of enacting tariffs is unlawful and that the tariffs are damaging the U.S. economy.
“Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans promised to lower the cost of living on day one. They lied. Instead, prices and inflation are rising, and Republicans are unleashing harm on everyday Americans,” U.S. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) said. “Trump's unlawful and repeated imposition and then abandonment of his reckless tariffs creates economic uncertainty, and the American people are forced to shoulder the burden.”
The brief was filed by the “litigation task force” created by Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives, and Murkowski’s signature on the brief marks the first time the task force has brought a bipartisan challenge against the Trump administration.
The Supreme Court case in question is related to a legal challenge against tariffs which resulted in the U.S. Court of International Trade ruling the tariffs were invalid in May, with an appeals court later also ruling that a large swath of them are illegal but that they would continue until further appeals.
The amicus brief comes soon after Trump said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social that he is increasing all tariffs on Canada by 10 percent “over and above what they are paying now.” He said the increase was in response of what he called a “serious misrepresentation of the facts” in a television advertisement, which featured a radio address by former U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
“Canada was caught, red handed, putting up a fraudulent advertisement on Ronald Reagan’s Speech on Tariffs,” Trump wrote.
The address by Reagan, which is available online, was a speech by the former president about his decision to place higher tariffs on Japanese products.
Trump said the Reagan Foundation said the ad misrepresents the radio address and also claimed the advertisement was an attempt by Canada to influence the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court case.
“Ronald Reagan LOVED Tariffs for the purposes of National Security and the Economy, but Canada said he didn’t!” Trump wrote. “The Advertisement was to be taken down, IMMEDIATELY, but they let it run last night during the World Series, knowing that it was a FRAUD.”
The exact timing of the implementation of the tariffs is still unknown, as is whether they will apply to seafood. Canada is already subject to 35 percent tariffs; however, goods that comply with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement continue to be exempt from that rate – an exemption which includes seafood products.
