Oregon’s attorney general describes Supreme Court tariff win

Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield said he was disappointed with President Donald Trump’s response to a U.S. Supreme Court decision last week siding with the Oregon Department of Justice to block Trump’s tariffs.

Trump “saying, ‘I’m not going to give that money back’ … frustrates me,” Rayfield said during a Tuesday, Feb. 24, appearance in Eugene. An Associated Press story Friday about possible tariff refunds quoted Trump as saying, “I guess it has to get litigated for the next two years.”

Oregon led a group of states in a successful legal challenge filed last April opposing Trump’s sweeping tariffs, arguing that the type of tariffs imposed by Trump should only be authorized by Congress rather than the executive branch of the federal government.

But while the attorney general, elected November 2024, spoke about disappointment with Trump’s “attacking all of our democratic institutions,” he also talked about “positive things going on in our country right now” at an event organized by the League of Women Voters of Lane County.

“You have a Supreme Court from time to time that’s going to stand up,” Rayfield said to gentle titters from the crowd of about 200 at The Shedd Institute, which at the end of his talk stood up and applauded.

Rayfield added that some Republican members of Congress are “getting upset,” referring specifically to a rebuke by Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, who criticized remarks made by a Trump appointee about using federal agencies to threaten broadcasters.

“And one of the most amazing things that we’re seeing is we’re seeing Americans, people from all walks of life, engaging in the political process in a way that we haven’t seen in recent memory, and that’s the way this is supposed to work,” Rayfield said.

New tariffs

Trump, along with stating he was “ashamed” of some Supreme Court justices after the 6-3 tariff ruling, also announced new tariffs that he can legally impose.

Rayfield explained the difference between the latest tariffs and the sweeping tariffs blocked by the U.S. Supreme Court.

“The Supreme Court said, ‘Hey, you can’t use this emergency power to implement tariffs,’” Rayfield said. But “there are statutes that Congress has given any president the ability to use tariffs,” he said.

Under these laws, there’s a cap of 15% on the tariffs and, by law, they can last for only 150 days, Rayfield said.

“They’re very limited. And we expect this is more of an effort to kind of save face, move forward over the next six months, and then it’s going to be up to Congress to decide whether or not they want to continue them,” Rayfield said.

‘Leading the fight’

Rayfield traced the initial steps taken in the fight against Trump’s tariffs and also described how he’s emphasized adaptability in his office to better respond to Trump’s actions.

“I believe Oregon has an obligation and a commitment to lead this fight,” Rayfield said, to applause from the crowd. Rayfield’s Department of Justice has led or joined dozens of lawsuits against the Trump administration.

About the tariff fight, “I have a background in economics and was watching this go on,” Rayfield said. “And I just said to myself — and some of our best lawsuits have come from — ‘I’m not sure you can do that.’”

“We started researching it very early on, and we said, ‘Hey, there is something here,’” Rayfield said. “We were very far ahead. We were able to convince a handful of states to join with us in this lawsuit.”

Department of Justice attorneys, while working on the case, became the first of any in a Democrat-led justice department to be certified by the Court of International Trade, which is based in New York, Rayfield said, adding that the state won a “unanimous decision” from that court.

Last Friday, the morning of the U.S. Supreme Court decision, Rayfield said he was in “a taxi cab trying to get home” and pressing refresh on his phone “trying to see when the opinion is going to pop.”

Rayfield spoke about appearing at the counsel’s table before the U.S. Supreme Court as part of the case.

“When you think about how our democratic institutions are holding up, one of the most humbling things that I’ve ever been a part of is sitting at counsel table [in front of the] United States Supreme Court and hearing the nine justices debate and ask questions about these fundamental institutions of our government, and talking about how no president gets to steal the powers of Congress,” he said.

Asked about election concerns, Rayfield, who noted that his father is a Republican while his mother has been a member of the Green Party, said he’s been “deeply bothered” by redistricting efforts.

“I’m obviously in the opposite party of the president, but we as Democrats feel compelled that we have to compete, to protect, or lose ground in Congress, right?” Rayfield said. “I don’t think that that is good for faith in our institutions. That deeply troubles me as someone who really believes in our electoral process.”