DC Court Sets May 27 Hearing Date for Injunction, Transfer Motions in IEEPA Case
The U.S. District Court for the District Columbia set a hearing for May 27 to hear two children's educational materials producers' motion for a preliminary injunction against all tariff action taken by President Donald Trump under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. In a text-only order, Judge Rudolph Contreras set the hearing to take place at 3 p.m. EDT both on the preliminary injunction bid and the U.S. government's motion to transfer the case to the Court of International Trade (Learning Resources v. Donald J. Trump, D.D.C. # 25-01248).
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The plaintiffs, Learning Resources and Hand2Mind, brought their case against the IEEPA tariffs last week to the federal D.C. court (see 2504290057) and join a growing number of parties, including fellow importers and U.S. states, in challenging the duties. So far, four of the cases challenging the tariffs were brought outside the trade court, though one of the cases, brought before the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana, was ordered to be transferred to CIT. The plaintiffs in that action, four members of the Blackfeet Nation tribe, have appealed that ruling (see 2504250063).
Learning Resources' case is the first to be brought by a major law firm. Attorneys at Akin Gump filed the complaint and alleged that Trump exceeded the limits of IEEPA in imposing the tariffs. In vying for a preliminary injunction, the attorneys said the two companies will suffer "irreparable harm" without an injunction in the form of loss of "business opportunities, market share, and customer good-will," which are all "unrecoverable from the federal government" in the form of refunds.
The brief said the companies are suffering these forms of irreparable harm now, since the plaintiffs have "stopped as many shipments from China as possible because they would be unable to absorb or pass along the costs" following the announcement of a 125% tariff on China.