Oregon Sides with Free-Market Groups on Trade

It’s always newsworthy when the Oregon Department of Justice pursues litigation on economic policy that joins the side of free-market advocates. Indeed, I cannot think of another instance beyond this week, when Oregon was the leading plaintiff, joined by several other states, in filing suit in the U.S. Court of International Trade, arguing that the Trump administration’s IEEPA tariffs exceed Article II authority.

Compare them yourself. Here is Oregon’s complaint. And here is what the Liberty Justice Center filed on behalf of some businesses harmed by the tariffs. Notice that, in addition to making laissez-faire arguments, Oregon’s suit also uses conservative jurisprudence, arguing for the original intent of Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution and against congressional delegation.

We don’t tend to see that kind of legal reasoning from the Oregon Department of Justice, but we tend not to see extreme left-wing economic policy coming from Republican administrations either. The anti-globalization movement, from the 1999 Battle in Seattle to the Biden administration’s proclivity to keep the first Tump administration’s tariffs in place, has been a progressive posture against capitalism. The second Trump administration is pursuing the kind of tariff policies Ralph Nader would have imposed on us.

Might we see more free-market litigation out of Oregon? Maybe, just as President Trump appears to be turning the Democrats into foreign policy hawks, perhaps he’s making them more market-friendly too. That would be a better outcome than if Democrats were to realize that tariffs are taxes and begin to wonder, from their big-government perspective, what’s not to love?

Eric Shierman lives in Salem and is the author of We were winning when I was there.