Wisconsin Joins Multi-State Lawsuit Against New Trump Tariffs
Evers and Kaul say the latest 10% import duties are illegal and driving up prices for families.
Attorney General Josh Kaul speaks Wednesday, March 1, 2023, at the Milwaukee Crime Lab in Milwaukee, Wis. Angela Major/WPR
Wisconsin is one of more than 20 states suing the Trump administration to try to block the administration’s most recent effort to impose new tariffs.
Gov. Tony Evers and state Attorney General Josh Kaul announced Thursday that the state was joining a multi-state lawsuit aimed at blocking 10 percent tariffs on imported goods.
The Trump administration unveiled those duties in February after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled previous tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act were unconstitutional.
“Rather than accepting that and moving on from the tariffs, the president promptly imposed new tariffs, citing a new authority that he purports gives him the basis to put these tariffs in place,” Kaul said during a press conference Thursday.
Tariffs are a tax paid by businesses importing goods or materials, with the costs of those tariffs typically passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices.
Wisconsin businesses paid an estimated $3.5 billion in tariffs from March 2025 through December 2025, according to We Pay the Tariffs, an advocacy group of small businesses.
The multi-state litigation argues the “president has no authority to impose tariffs” under the statute President Donald Trump cited in the Trade Act of 1974. The suit says the statute cited authorizes tariffs in limited circumstances, but “cannot be invoked merely to address trade deficits on their own,” as the president has tried to do.
“We are arguing in this suit that the President doesn’t have the authority he claims to have, and that these tariffs that he’s recently imposed are being unlawfully imposed on the American people just as the prior set of tariffs were,” Kaul said.
It asks the court to declare that the duties can’t be enforced “because these tariffs are unlawful.”
In a statement, Evers said Trump’s “trade wars” are harming Wisconsinites by raising prices. He said Wisconsin families are “paying the price” for Trump’s tariffs and “shouldn’t be saddled with the cost of the president’s illegal tariff taxes.”
“The Trump Administration continues to blatantly ignore our constitutional checks and balances, and Republicans in Congress not only aren’t doing anything to stop him — they’re helping him,” Evers stated. “Congress cannot continue to let this continued overreach of power go unchecked.”
The administration has said the latest round of tariffs is meant to rebalance the country’s trade relationships to benefit American workers, farmers and manufacturers. A fact sheet from the White House says the newest tariffs could help the United States “stem the outflow of its dollars to foreign producers.”
“Tariffs will continue to be a critical tool in President Trump’s toolbox for protecting American businesses and workers, reshoring domestic production, lowering costs, and raising wages,” the White House said on Feb. 20. “The Supreme Court’s disappointing decision … will not deter the President’s effort to reshape the long-distorted global trading system that has undermined the economic and national security of our country.”
But Kaul said families across the state are already struggling with the cost of living, and Trump’s tariffs have “exacerbated this problem.”
A recent report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that nearly 90 percent of the cost of tariffs in 2025 were paid by American consumers and businesses.
“These tariffs really are a tax on the American people, and that includes families in Wisconsin, and I’m proud to be fighting against it,” Kaul said.
Kaul said he’s confident the new tariff lawsuit will move forward and he believes the states included in the suit have “strong arguments.” He also said he’s hopeful the case will move through the court system “much faster than the last case did.”
He said the new suit is asking for a preliminary court order blocking the tariffs from going into effect while the case plays out in court. In the last case, tariffs were allowed to remain in effect until the Supreme Court ruled.
“We are hopeful that this case will deliver real relief for consumers and businesses in Wisconsin and around the country,” he said.
Wisconsin joins multi-state lawsuit challenging Trump’s most recent round of tariffs was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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