‘Complete cowardice’: Why Big Business sat out the tariff legal fight
American industry has taken a less antagonistic approach to the president’s signature trade policy, opting for lobbying over lawsuits.
Major American companies have arguably the most to lose from President Donald Trump’s tariffs. But they have largely stayed out of the legal fight challenging the levies, opting instead to quietly lobby against the policy for fear of angering a vindictive White House.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case challenging the president’s use of a federal law called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, to set the tariffs. Challengers argue Trump exceeded the powers granted to the president under the act, which allows him to “regulate” international commerce during a time of national emergency.
Small companies have led the way in filing legal challenges to the tariffs. But larger companies like those that populate the Dow Jones haven’t followed suit, blunting the prominence of the legal campaign against the administration, said John Vecchione, senior litigation counsel at the New Civil Liberties Alliance, a libertarian nonprofit that filed the first lawsuit against the tariffs.
