U.S. President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn as he departs the White House on October 12, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Aaron Schwartz | Getty Images
A new lawsuit filed Tuesday challenges President Donald Trump’s invocation of a Depression-era law that imposed 50% tariffs on a variety of Canadian products.
In July, President Trump used Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930 to impose steep tariffs on Canadian hockey sticks, wine, honey, wigs and other products in response to allegations of trade discrimination by Ottawa. This is the first time that the 96-year-old law has been used to impose tariffs.
“Section 338 is a relic of retaliatory-based tariff policy that has been ‘implicitly repealed’ by subsequent legislation,” the civil complaint filed with the U.S. Court of International Trade states.
The lawsuit was filed by New Jersey-based food importer Gellert Global Group, which claims its cheese is subject to the tariffs. The complaint asks the court to declare the tariffs illegal, block their enforcement, and order the Trump administration to refund the duties already paid with interest.
Gellert Global is represented by the Liberty Justice Center, the same legal group that challenged President Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs and dealt a major blow to Trump’s trade policies.
The Supreme Court struck down these tariffs in February. The administration is in the process of repaying an estimated $166 billion that the federal government collected from importers through reciprocal tariffs.
The Liberty Justice Center currently has two other lawsuits alleging President Trump’s misuse of the law to impose sweeping tariffs.
“This lawsuit is not about the president. It’s about the office of the president,” Sara Albrecht, the group’s CEO, said in a statement Tuesday morning announcing Gellert Global’s lawsuit. “No president should have the power to pull dormant laws off the shelf and use them to impose sweeping tariffs and import bans without the restrictions Congress requires.”
The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on the lawsuit.
