The lawsuit argues the White House exceeded its authority in imposing the latest tariffs on the country and caused "immediate harm to American businesses".
Page B43From§Eachthe afternoon edition — 20 October 2026
Trump invokes tariff law courts already ruled he exceeded, taxing Canada $20 billion again.
As it ran on the front
The group that persuaded the Supreme Court to strike down a large share of President Trump's tariffs filed suit again Tuesday, this time over his 50 percent tariff on Canadian goods. Same statute, same lawyers, a different country.
Hours later, a New Jersey food importer filed its own suit over the identical levy, naming the identical Depression-era law. Two plaintiffs, one morning, one law a federal court has already ruled this president exceeded.…
…(cont) The tariff itself traces to August. Trade talks with Ottawa collapsed on a Friday; by Saturday Washington had put a 50 percent tariff on roughly $20 billion worth of Canadian goods. Canada's response came within the week: $20 billion in retaliatory tariffs of its own, effective September 8, matched dollar for dollar.
That is the shape of the fight: $20 billion out, $20 billion back, and a law in the middle that courts have found does not reach this far. The administration invoked it a second time anyway. Tuesday's lawsuits argue the theory a court accepted once before, aimed now at a tariff imposed after that ruling came down.
These two suits do not stand alone. Bush put together.
None of that paperwork refunds a tariff paid before a court rules. The $20 billion figure sits on two ledgers at once: the $20 billion Canada collects in retaliation, and the $20 billion in Canadian goods taxed 50 percent at the American border while the newest suit works its way through the docket. A food importer in New Jersey does not get to wait for the Supreme Court.
So when the filing lands next to the ruling, the gap is not abstract. It is not Ottawa's column and it is not Washington's. It is the cost-of-goods line of a company that imports food for a living, charged twice under a law a court has already told this administration it cannot use.
“A court already told him this law doesn't stretch to Canada, so he used it again, full strength, fifty percent, twenty billion dollars. The people covering that bill aren't sitting in some Ottawa boardroom, they're the import outfit in Jersey paying it at the dock before any judge opens the file. Lose in court, do it again, and let the business eat the interest while the case crawls through for a year and a half.”
“The President has broad emergency authority to act fast on trade threats, that's the whole design of the statute — and sure, a court said he overstepped using it once, but fifty percent on Canada is a completely different number than last time. Completely different number, same law a court already rejected. Did I just say that out loud? That's — that's not where I was going with this.”
The receipts
State attorneys general have filed at least 145 lawsuits against the Trump administration since Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025. That is already more than the 138 filed during Trump’s entire first term. State AGs filed 78 multistate suits against the Obama administration and 76 against George W.
A New Jersey food importer filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging President Donald Trump’s power to invoke a Depression-era law to levy a 50% tariff on $20 billion worth of Canadian goods
The Trump administration was sued over its Canadian tariffs Tuesday by the same group that successfully got the Supreme Court to overturn a large swath of the president's levies last year.
· "Most Stupid Trade Fight in History": U.S. & Canadian Workers Stand to Lose in Trump's New Tariff War from the morgue, 24 Aug 2026
· 'Canada Must Respond': Ottawa Slaps Retaliatory Tariffs on US Goods After Trump Trade War Escalation from the morgue, 25 Aug 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.