A key player in the conservative legal movement is in unlikely alignment with congressional Democrats over President Donald Trump’s tariffs — highlighting the growing divide between Trump and Republicans who’ve long advocated for free trade and small government.
The first major legal challenge against Trump’s legal authority to implement sweeping new tariffs came from the nonprofit law firm New Civil Liberties Alliance, which is funded in part by groups linked to conservative legal activist Leonard Leo and headed by a former Koch Industries attorney.
NCLA successfully fought to get Chevron deference overturned, shifting decision-making authority about ambiguous laws away from government agencies and into the hands of Congress and judges — which was considered a massive win for the conservative, deregulatory legal movement.