Could 'Princess Awesome' Defeat Trump's Tariffs?
Small businesses and a dozen states have filed a pair of lawsuits challenging Trump's authority to impose tariffs on board games, clothes, and lots of other things.
It sounds like something out of a comic book: Princess Awesome vs. Tariff Man.
And, as so often seems to be the case in those stories, the would-be hero faces daunting odds against a powerful villain, with the fate of the world—or at least a chunk of the global economy—hanging in the balance.
Princess Awesome LLC, a Maryland-based shop that sells nerdy apparel for kids and adults, is one of several plaintiffs in a new lawsuit challenging the legitimacy of President Donald Trump's unilateral tariff powers. Other plaintiffs in the suit include five sellers of tabletop games and board games, an art studio, a kitchen supply company, and a toy store. All say they have paid tariffs or expect to have to pay them in the near future, as their businesses depend on imports.
In a blog post on the company's website earlier this month, Princess Awesome cofounder Rebecca Melsky showed how tariffs were increasing the prices of her products. "It's bad for the world, for the country, for you, and for all companies, but particularly small ones," she wrote. "Big businesses will have an easier time absorbing the extra costs and passing them on to the consumer."
In the complaint filed this week, Princess Awesome says it has already paid over $1,000 in tariffs this year, with more payments expected on upcoming shipments from Bangladesh, India, and Peru.
One of Princess Awesome's sidekicks in the lawsuit is Stonemaier Games, a board game company founded in 2012. Orders that are ready to ship from China could cost the company "millions [of dollars] in tariffs," the lawsuit alleges.
"We will not stand idle while our livelihood—and the livelihoods of thousands of small business owners and contractors in the U.S.—are treated like pawns in a political game," said Jamey Stegmaier, cofounder of Stonemaier Games, in a statement. "We now face a $14.50 tariff tax for every $10 we spent on manufacturing with our trusted long-term partner in China. For Stonemaier Games, that amounts to upcoming tariff payments of nearly $1.5 million."
The lawsuit was filed this week in the U.S. Court of International Trade, a special federal court that handles disputes over tariffs and trade deals, by the Pacific Legal Foundation. It alleges that Trump overstepped the authority granted by the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) when he announced a universal 10 percent tariff on all imports to the United States earlier this month. The Trump administration has also used IEEPA to impose massive tariffs on imports from China.
The lawsuit argues that Trump's use of IEEPA is unlawful since the law does not explicitly give presidents the power to levy tariffs. It also argues, as other critics of Trump's tariffs have, that the law allows for presidential action only in response to an "unusual and extraordinary threat," and that the free exchange of goods across national borders does not qualify as either.
Separate from the Princess Awesome lawsuit, 12 states filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of International Trade on Wednesday, also challenging Trump's tariffs on the grounds that the president overstepped the powers granted by IEEPA.
"The president does not have the power to raise taxes on a whim, but that's exactly what President Trump has been doing with these tariffs," New York Attorney General Letitia James, one of the 12 state attorneys general who filed the lawsuit, said in a statement.
Both the attorneys general and the small business owners are right. Board games, clothes, and other imported goods do not constitute an "unusual" or "extraordinary" threat that justifies a massive tax increase on Americans. Trump's tariffs are economically foolish and legally dubious. Courts (and Congress) should move quickly to strike them down.
