Simplified Founder & CEO Emily Ley has filed the first complaint against the Trump Administration over the new tariffs on China. Ley appeared on MSNBC with her attorney to discuss how the tariffs have impacted her business and customers.
The Impact on Small Business
Ley founded her business in 2008, creating beautiful planners and paper goods now carried in major retail stores and on her website. Since 2017, her company has paid nearly $1.2 million in tariffs. As she explained during the interview, these financial burdens affect every aspect of her business, from salaries to growth opportunities and even their philanthropic efforts.
Ley is particularly concerned about the human cost. Her company employs nine American women, many of them mothers.
“These tariffs are impacting people on a very human level,” Ley shared. “We have women who worry about their jobs. We have customers concerned they’re not going to be able to get the products they’ve known and loved for sixteen years.”
According to Ley, what began as “scary” in 2017 has progressed to feeling “impossible” and now “absolutely devastating. ”
The Legal Challenge
John Vecchione, senior litigation counsel at the New Civil Liberties Alliance, represents Ley in this civil case. Vecchione outlined three principal arguments against the tariffs:
- The statute being used (AIEPA) doesn’t actually allow for tariffs, but rather measures like embargoes
- Under the “major questions doctrine,” if an action significantly affects the economy, Congress must clearly authorize such power.
- Tariffs are constitutionally a congressional power, and if delegated to the president, Congress must provide clear guidelines for implementation.
MOVING FORWARD
While acknowledging the risk of taking such a public stand, Ley hopes her actions will inspire other business owners to speak out about how tariffs affect them “at a very deeply personal level.”
She noted that the impact extends beyond companies importing finished products from overseas—even American-made businesses sourcing raw materials internationally will feel the effects.
For Ley, this fight represents more than just her company’s bottom line.
“As an entrepreneur, as a creative, it devastates me,” she explained. “It feels catastrophic to have to look at the future of my American dream—of the American dreams of so many people—and feel like this is where it ends.”