Letitia James spent years trying to destroy Donald Trump in court – and lost every time.
Now she's leading 25 Democrat attorneys general in a lawsuit against Trump's new tariffs, betting she can win where she always failed before.
What happened when the last major challenge to Section 301 tariffs reached the Supreme Court will make Democrats regret they ever filed this one.
Democrats Chose the One Tariff Tool Courts Have Already Blessed
James is betting on the wrong lawsuit.
Trump's new tariffs aren't the ones the Supreme Court struck down in February.
The Court killed his IEEPA tariffs – the emergency powers tariffs – in a 6-3 ruling.
That's the decision James keeps waving around in press releases, calling these new tariffs an "illegal end run around the Supreme Court."
But Trump didn't go back to IEEPA.
He pivoted to Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974.
That's a completely different law, with completely different authority, and a completely different legal track record.
https://twitter.com/Arightside/status/2084579794273128850?s=20
Section 301 just survived its biggest court challenge in history.
HMTX Industries spent six years trying to kill Trump's Section 301 tariffs on China.
They argued before the Court of International Trade, then the Federal Circuit, then finally begged the Supreme Court to hear their case.
The Supreme Court declined in June 2026 – just weeks ago – letting stand a ruling that explicitly upheld USTR's authority to impose and expand Section 301 tariffs.
The Forced Labor Justification Is Legally Airtight
James is calling these tariffs a disguised attempt to get around the Supreme Court's IEEPA ruling.
The White House calls them exactly what they are: enforcement against forced labor.
The United States banned imports of goods made with forced labor in 1930.
Section 301 explicitly identifies forced labor as an actionable foreign trade practice.
https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2082846877473448295?s=20
USTR investigated 60 trading partners and found they weren't enforcing import bans on goods produced by slaves and exploited workers.
Trump asked them to stop allowing slave labor products to undercut American workers.
They refused. He imposed tariffs.
The official USTR fact sheet is blunt: "The United States is the only country in the world to adopt, and effectively enforce, a ban on imports made with forced labor." Trump is asking trading partners to join us. If they won't, American workers pay the price – and Trump is making sure foreign countries pay it instead.
That's not an illegal end run.
That's exactly what Section 301 was written to do.
James Is Running Out of Legal Arguments – and Running for Something Else
James declared war on Trump the day she was elected in 2018 – calling him a "con man" and "carnival barker" before she'd spent a single day in office.
She spent years building a civil fraud case against him, secured a $364 million judgment from a New York court, and watched Trump's Justice Department indict her on mortgage fraud charges this year in return.
Her coalition AGs have challenged Trump on immigration, NIH funding, and environmental rules.
Some won. Many lost.
What's always been consistent is the pattern: James announces the lawsuit loudly, the media runs the press conference, and the legal reality catches up much later and much more quietly.
This lawsuit is designed to generate headlines, not win in court.
The legal vehicle she chose has just been validated from the Court of International Trade all the way to the Supreme Court's doorstep.
The administration's case is backed by a formal USTR investigation, a public comment period, and enforcement actions already underway at every American port of entry.
https://twitter.com/NewsNew97351204/status/2084638341731893745?s=20
Meanwhile, American steelworkers, manufacturers, and farmers have already praised Trump's action.
ISM just reported its highest manufacturing PMI since 2022.
And the White House isn't flinching.
"Section 301 tariffs have proven to be a legally durable tool since the president's first term," spokesman Kush Desai told NBC News, "and they remain so now."
He's right.
And 25 attorneys general, a fleet of media cameras, and Letitia James's track record won't change that.
Sources:
- Anders Hagstrom, "25 Democrat-led states sue Trump over new tariffs, calling them illegal end run around Supreme Court," Fox Business, August 4, 2026.
- "Fact Sheet: USTR Section 301 Action in Response to the Failure of 60 Economies to Ban Imports Produced with Forced Labor," United States Trade Representative, July 2026.
- "Supreme Court Denies HMTX Petition, Upholds Section 301 Tariffs on Chinese Goods," IndexBox, June 16, 2026.
- "Legal Authority for Section 301 Tariffs to Address Forced Labor and Excess Manufacturing Capacity," Congressional Research Service via Congress.gov, July 2026.
- "Forced Labor, Meet Section 301: New Tariffs Target 60 of America's Biggest Trading Partners," Troutman Pepper Locke, July 2026.