A small women-owned business in Florida is suing Trump over tariffs — with help from a Libertarian legal group

• Emily Ley, owner of Simplified, sued Trump over tariffs on China that are threatening her business.
• Ley's lawsuit challenges Trump's use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
• Simplified faces potential closure due to tariffs, risking up to $1 million in costs this year.

Until about a month ago, Emily Ley's social media posts consisted almost entirely of delicious recipes and photos of idyllic time spent with her family.

But since President Donald Trump began to impose tariffs Ley says would end her American Dream, she suddenly found herself at the forefront of a fight impacting the livelihoods of millions.

"I was seeing so much misinformation and confusion about what tariffs are, who pays the tariffs, and how tariffs impact employees and businesses and consumers," Ley told Business Insider, "so just a couple weeks ago, I decided I have got to speak up and say something."

Aside from being a published cookbook author, an influencer with more than 230,000 followers, and the mother of two young children, Ley is also the CEO of Simplified, a small stationary company in Florida run by a team of nine women. The company relies on Chinese manufacturers to produce its signature planners for busy women — and Trump's tariffs could shut her business down.

"I posted on Instagram just a couple of detailed slides about what the tariffs are, how it has impacted Simplified, and how much money we have paid in tariffs over the last few years — and it quickly went viral," said Ley. "I have the facts because I'm the one signing the checks."

A constitutional challenge to Trump's tariffs

Ley's posts led to a call with the New Civil Liberties Alliance, a Libertarian legal group. The group now represents her as a stakeholder in a lawsuit against Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and the Customs and Border Protection Acting Commissioner Peter R. Flores.

The lawsuit filed at the Northern District of Florida states that Trump has misused the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs on all exports from China, as the law was meant for "sanctions as a rapid response to international emergencies," which "does not allow a president to impose tariffs on the American people."

The IEEPA, a 1970s law that grants the president sweeping powers only during an economic emergency, was invoked by Trump to justify his duties on almost all other countries. So if Ley's case succeeds, it could undo all of his tariffs.

"The constitutional power 'to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises' and 'to regulate commerce with foreign Nations' belongs to Congress," said John Vecchione, senior litigation counsel of NCLA, in a statement. "The Administration's actions followed none of these constitutional commands."

After rounds of retaliations, the US tariffs on China stand at 145%, while China's counter-tariffs on the US increased to 125% as of April 11.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Ley plans to 'go down fighting'

Ley started making planners in 2012 after she had her first child and realized that there were no notebooks out there that met her needs as a woman juggling many tasks.

Her first instinct was to work with a manufacturer close to home. However, it cost $38 each to make the most basic planner domestically, so even though she priced them at $50 each and sold out an initial run, she was left with no profits after deducting other fees and business expenses from the balance.

After a year of looking for an affordable US manufacturer, Ley began working with factories with ethics certifications in Shenzhen, a southern Chinese city, in 2013. Simplified now has more than 50 different planner designs, selling between $20 and $60 each. The production cost of each planner is around 25% of the price listed on the Simplified website.

"We were only able to grow because China has the infrastructure to do all of the things we wanted to do with our products, like having gold binding, gold corners, pockets and stickers, and beautiful keepsake boxes for packaging," said Ley. "That infrastructure just doesn't exist here."

Since Trump's first round of tariffs on China in 2017, Simplified has been paying 25% in tariffs, which, as of January 1 this year, cost the business just under $1.2 million over 8 years.

Now, with the prospect of a 145% tariff, the business would be paying anywhere between $830,000 and a million dollars this year alone. Ley would be looking at the "scary prospect" of cutting staff, hiking prices, or shutting her doors if she couldn't find a domestic manufacturer capable of making the same products.

"I did not have it on my Bingo card for 2025 to sue the president, but I am proud to stand up as a small-business owner, as a women-owned business," said Ley. "If this is going to be the end for my company, I'm going to go down fighting."