Governor Jared Polis and Attorney General Phil Weiser announced on Wednesday that the state would be joining a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its imposed tariffs, which Polis argues are illegal.

The lawsuit challenges President Donald Trump’s executive orders from earlier this year imposing 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico, with certain exceptions, and a baseline 10% tariff on nearly all U.S. trading partners, including China. It also challenges the reciprocal tariffs for most countries that have since been suspended for negotiations until July 8.

The tariffs — which the Trump administration imposed by invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act — were presented as a way to address trade imbalances and strengthen domestic industries, though Colorado economists have expressed concern over the tariff’s pricing impacts on already inflated industries like housing and general construction since their implementation in February and April.

“Here in Colorado, tariffs are already hurting Colorado agriculture and small businesses. We will do everything we can legally to prevent tariffs that are bad for businesses and all Americans,” Polis said in a written statement.

A mix of 12 Democratic and Republican states, along with other plaintiffs, filed the suit on April 23 through the U.S. Court of International Trade in New York. The coalition of states includes Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, and Vermont.

The lawsuit asks the court to block government agencies from enforcing the tariffs based on the allegation that there is currently no national emergency justifying the president’s invocation of the International Emergency Economic Power Act to implement tariffs — which the president is only allowed to invoke when there is an “unusual and extraordinary threat” from abroad.

Before this year, no president had ever imposed tariffs based on the International Emergency Economic Power Act, according to a news release from Polis’ office.

“Under the Constitution, only Congress has the power to tax and impose tariffs, and there is no ’emergency’ that justifies the Trump tariffs,” he said in a statement. “We are challenging these tariffs in court because they are illegal and, as one study concluded, they will ‘increase inflation, result in nearly 800,000 lost jobs, and shrink the American economy by $180 billion a year.'”

Before joining the lawsuit, he met with more than 35 manufacturers and 30 industry partners in Northern Colorado on April 16 to discuss the impacts of Trump’s tariff taxes on the industry and economy. The governor has publicly urged the president to withdraw his administration’s tariffs on several occasions.

Colorado exported a record $10.5 billion and imported $16.8 billion in 2024, according to the news release. An estimated 820,200 jobs in Colorado are supported by international trade, representing over 20% of all jobs in the state, according to a report by Trade Partnership Worldwide LLC.