(The Center Square) – A nonprofit public-interest litigation firm filed a lawsuit Monday alleging President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs require congressional approval. 

The Liberty Justice Center, based in Texas, challenged the administration’s reciprocal tariffs, which Trump announced on April 2 and suspended on April 9, hours after they went into effect.

The Liberty Justice Center filing argues that the administration has no authority to issue across-the-board worldwide tariffs without congressional approval. The nonprofits lawsuit alleges Trump has broadly overstepped his authority by claiming “the authority to unilaterally levy tariffs on goods imported from any and every country in the world, at any rate, calculated via any methodology – or mere caprice – immediately, with no notice, or public comment, or phase-in, or delay in implementation, despite massive economic impacts that are likely to do severe damage to the global economy.”

The suit alleges that the statute Trump has used to justify the tariffs, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, doesn’t give Trump the authority he thinks it does. 

“His claimed emergency is a figment of his own imagination: trade deficits, which have persisted for decades without causing economic harm, are not an emergency,” according to the lawsuit. “Nor do these trade deficits constitute an ‘unusual and extraordinary threat.'”

The suit asks the U.S. Court of International Trade to “declare the President’s unprecedented power grab illegal, enjoin the operation of the executive actions that purport to impose these tariffs under the IEEPA, and reaffirm this country’s core founding principle: there shall be no taxation without representation.”

Liberty Justice Center filed the case on behalf of New York-based wine and spirit importers VOS Selections; Pennsylvania-based freshwater fishing supplier FishUSA; Utah-based plumbing and irrigation suppliers Genova Pipe; Virginia-based toy designer MicroKits LLC; and Vermont-based women’s bicycling company Terry Precision Cycling.

All five companies import products from other countries affected by the tariffs, including the 10% baseline tariffs.

The suit argues Trump’s tariffs were over broad and disregarded existing trade agreements.

“These tariffs even applied to places with no civilian population or international trade activity, such as the British Indian Ocean Territory, whose only human inhabitants belong to a joint American and British military base on the island of Diego Garcia, and the Heard and McDonald Islands, which are inhabited only by penguins and seals,” Liberty Justice Center attorneys noted in the court filing. 

Liberty Justice Center said that Trump’s so-called “reciprocal” tariffs were crude calculations: “The chosen formula is not an accepted methodology for calculating trade barriers and has no basis in economic theory.”

The Liberty Justice Center action also takes issues with the idea that trade deficits are bad. Trump has repeatedly said that U.S. trade deficits are the result of trading partners ripping off the U.S. for decades. 

“Nor are trade deficits an emergency or even necessarily a problem; they simply mean that some other country sells lots of things Americans want to buy, or that its people are unwilling or unable (often because of poverty) to purchase many American goods,” according to the lawsuit.

Trump has made audacious promises about his tariffs on the campaign trail and since inauguration. He has said tariffs will make the U.S. “rich as hell,” bring back manufacturing jobs lost to lower-wage countries in decades past and shift the tax burden away from U.S. families.

A tariff is a tax on imported goods. The importer pays the tax and can either absorb the loss or pass the tax on to consumers in the form of higher prices.

In his “Liberation Day” speech, Trump said foreign nations for decades have stolen American jobs, factories and industries. He said the tariffs would bring in new jobs, factories and industries and return the U.S. to a manufacturing superpower.

“Our country and its taxpayers have been ripped off for more than 50 years,” Trump said. “But it is not going to happen anymore.”

Some nations, including China, have responded with retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods. Others have signaled they are eager to make a deal with the Trump administration. Trump has not yet announced any trade deals. Trump paused the higher tariffs for 90 days, giving his administration limited time to make deals with 75 nations the White House reported reached out seeking trade negotiations.

(The Center Square) – Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed multiple clean energy bills this session, as a new report ranked Virginia 23rd in the nation for energy affordability thanks to its diverse power mix.

A new report from the American Legislative Exchange Council credits Virginia’s relatively low electricity prices to its heavy reliance on natural gas and nuclear power, which together supply nearly 90% of the commonwealth’s energy.

The report shows that 56% of Virginia’s electricity comes from natural gas, followed by 32% from nuclear power and just 5% from solar and other renewables.

Despite that mix, lawmakers passed a slate of clean energy bills this session to expand solar access, improve energy planning and support low-income households. “Virginia’s energy policy framework includes a hat-trick of a Renewable Portfolio Standard, Cap-and-Trade policy, and a net metering policy,” the report states. “Despite these policies that encourage the adoption of solar energy by making it more economically viable for consumers, solar energy remains at only 5% of total electricity contribution.”

One of the vetoed proposals was House Bill 1935, which would have created a task force to improve access to energy efficiency upgrades and weatherization services for low-income households.

House Bill 2413 would have expanded Virginia’s utility planning process by requiring more public input, longer-term forecasting and clean energy considerations. Youngkin vetoed it, arguing the State Corporation Commission already has authority over those plans.

Senate Bill 823 also would have required utilities like Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power to submit detailed workforce development plans when building renewable energy facilities, “giving priority to the hiring, apprenticeship, and training of local workers, workers from historically economically disadvantaged communities, and veterans.”

House Bill 1616 would have created a workforce development program to support offshore wind jobs in Hampton Roads, but the governor rejected it, saying the bill duplicated existing efforts.

House Bill 2537, which would raise Virginia’s energy storage targets and require the development of local model ordinances, remains under review after lawmakers rejected the governor’s proposed substitute. He now has until May 2 to take final action.

House Bill 1883, which updates renewable portfolio standard rules for Dominion Energy and clarifies what qualifies as solar energy under state law, is also awaiting final action after lawmakers rejected the governor’s proposed changes. He has until May 2 to approve, veto, or amend the bill again.

At the same time, Dominion Energy is seeking approval to build a $4.5 billion natural gas plant in Chesterfield County, drawing criticism that it could lock Virginians into decades of higher energy costs.