(NewsNation) — Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield, who is leading a multistate lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s tariffs, said Thursday federal appeals court stays don’t alter the fundamental legal problems with the administration’s use of emergency powers to impose trade duties.
“You’ve had four judges in the United States that have ruled that the president has misused his emergency powers, and one of these judges was even appointed by Trump,” Rayfield, a Democrat, told “The Hill on NewsNation.” “A stay is just that, it periodically pauses the given action so that the appellate court can consider the merits of the case. This isn’t a ruling on the merits.”
The Oregon attorney general’s comments followed the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s temporary lifting of a lower court’s block on some Trump tariffs, although a separate Washington, D.C., ruling keeping other tariffs on hold remains in effect.
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Rayfield argued that Trump violated constitutional principles by invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act instead of traditional tariff authorities under Title 19, which previous presidents have used. He said the emergency powers law lacks the safeguards and time limits that Congress built into standard trade remedy statutes.
“The Constitution gives Congress the power to set tariffs. That isn’t an inherent presidential power,” Rayfield said. “Every single president has used Title 19 laws. He used an emergency power. No president has ever used that power, and that’s why he got struck down.”
“He’s trying to do this in a backwards way and find a loophole,” Rayfield told NewsNation.
The attorney general warned that Trump’s tariffs would cost Oregon households an average of $3,800 annually and have already reduced state revenue by more than $700 million, affecting funding for schools and health care. He cited instances of Canadian products being pulled from shelves at Oregon businesses due to trade uncertainty.
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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has defended the tariffs as being within the president’s authority, saying judges who blocked them “brazenly abused their judicial power to usurp the authority of President Trump.”
However, Rayfield noted that the three-judge panel that initially blocked the tariffs included appointees from the Reagan, Obama and Trump administrations.
When asked whether tariffs could help Oregon’s rising unemployment rate, which has outpaced the national average since June 2023, Rayfield dismissed the possibility. He said the economic disruption from trade disputes was harming rather than helping job creation in his state.
“The real facts here are that this is incredibly harmful to all of us,” Rayfield said. “I would love people to just ask their neighbors: Can you afford another $3,800 a year?”
The legal challenges are working their way through multiple courts, with briefing schedules extending into June as appeals courts consider whether to extend the temporary stays or allow the lower court blocks to take effect.
The White House says the Supreme Court will likely need to step in.
NewsNation partner The Hill contributed to this report.
