type: timeline_event
On March 5, 2026, New York Attorney General Letitia James led a coalition of 24 state attorneys general in filing suit in the U.S. Court of International Trade to block President Trump's newest round of global tariffs. The lawsuit came just days after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Trump's previous sweeping "Liberation Day" tariff regime, which had been imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
Rather than comply with the Supreme Court's ruling, the Trump administration immediately announced a new wave of tariffs, this time invoking Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, setting a global rate of 10% with plans to raise it to 15%. The multistate lawsuit charged that this maneuver constituted an illegal "end run" around the Supreme Court's decision, violated the Constitution, and misused Section 122 in ways inconsistent with statutory requirements.
The litigation is part of a broader and historically unprecedented pattern: within one year of Trump's second term, Democratic attorneys general had filed 71 lawsuits against the administration, covering immigration, education, healthcare, disaster recovery, housing, and now trade policy. The coordinated legal strategy, led by 22 states and the District of Columbia, represents one of the most sustained multistate legal resistance efforts in modern American history.
The lawsuit sought a court order declaring the new tariffs illegal and requiring refunds to affected states for tariff costs passed on to state governments and residents.