A coalition of small businesses is asking the US Supreme Court to strike down President Donald Trump’s global tariffs, arguing that the duties amount to an unlawful tax on American companies.  

Bloomberg reports that in a brief filed Monday, toy manufacturer Learning Resources Inc. said Trump “usurped the power of Congress to tax” when he imposed tariffs under an emergency law that was never meant for such use. The company claims that “by the government’s own account, those actions amount to an over $3 trillion tax increase on Americans over the next decade.”  

The case centers on whether Trump legally issued the tariffs under the 977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which allows the president to “regulate” the “importation” of property during a declared national emergency. Trump invoked the law in 2025 to justify new tariffs, calling US trade deficits a national security threat.  

The US trade court and a federal appeals court have both ruled that Trump exceeded his authority. The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Nov. 5 after agreeing to take the case on an expedited schedule.  

Another group of small businesses, led by wine and liquor distributor V.O.S. Selections Inc., said in its brief that “the government contends that the president may impose tariffs on the American people whenever he wants, at any rate he wants, for any countries and products he wants, for as long as he wants.”