MKS sports D.C., the United States, on April 2, 2025. Photo: Xinhua" src="https://www.globaltimes.cn/Portals/0/attachment/2025/2025-04-04/12fbc811-e50f-4491-a4ff-cd8fab474824.jpeg" />

U.S. President Donald Trump shows an executive order on "reciprocal tariffs" at the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, D.C., the United States, on April 2, 2025. Photo: Xinhua

New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), a conservative legal group, on Thursday US time filed what it said was the first lawsuit seeking to block US President Donald Trump's tariffs on Chinese imports, saying the US president overstepped his authority, Reuters reported. 

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Florida, alleges that President Trump lacked the legal authority to impose the sweeping April 2 tariffs as well as duties authorized on February 1 under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, Reuters reported.

NCLA is a nonprofit public interest civil rights group founded in 2017 by Columbia Law School professor Philip Hamburger, according to CCTV.

"By invoking emergency power to impose an across-the-board tariff on imports from China that the statute does not authorize, President Trump has misused that power, usurped Congress's right to control tariffs, and upset the Constitution's separation of powers," NCLA senior litigation counsel Andrew Morris said in a statement as reported by Reuters.

Amid widespread opposition, US President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order on the so-called "reciprocal tariffs," imposing a 10-percent "minimum baseline tariff" and higher rates on certain trading partners, Xinhua reported.

According to Xinhua, China will face a 34-percent tariff, the European Union 20 percent, Vietnam 46 percent, Japan 24 percent, India 26 percent, South Korea 25 percent, Thailand 36 percent, Switzerland 31 percent, Indonesia 32 percent, Malaysia 24 percent, and Cambodia 49 percent.

Global Times