• California Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta are suing the Trump administration over tariffs they claim harm the state’s economy. 
• They argue President Donald Trump exceeded his authority under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act. 
• The lawsuit seeks to halt the tariffs, citing significant economic impacts on California’s agriculture and manufacturing sectors. 

California Governor Gavin Newsom and Attorney-General Rob Bonta are suing the Trump administration in federal court, claiming that President Donald Trump exceeded his authority in imposing tariffs that they say are creating immediate and irreparable harm to California’s economy, the fifth-largest in the world. 

In the lawsuit filed Wednesday in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, Bonta and Newsom challenged Trump’s use of the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). They say the President cannot impose tariffs or direct Customs and Border Protection and the Department of Homeland Security to enforce them without the consent of Congress. 

“Congress has the power to impose tariffs, not the President,” Bonta told The Washington Post on Wednesday as he travelled to the Central Valley to meet with farmers affected by the tariffs. “The President has overreached again. He’s welcome to exercise his authority within his given jurisdiction, but not outside his given authority.” 

Newsom, speaking at a news conference after the lawsuit was filed, railed against Congress, asking why Republicans – who hold the majority in both chambers – have not reclaimed their tariff powers. 

“Where the hell is Congress? Where the hell is Speaker Johnson? Do your job,” Newsom said, referring to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana). “They’re sitting there passively as this guy wrecks the economy in the United States of America.” 

No authorisation 

In the lawsuit, Bonta and Newsom argue that IEEPA does not authorise the President to impose tariffs under a declared emergency, noting specifically that the word “tariff” does not appear in the statute at all. Additionally, the suit argues that no President before Trump has relied on IEEPA to impose tariffs in the 50 years since it was enacted. 

Bonta acknowledged that Congress has sometimes delegated authority to the President to impose tariffs under certain circumstances, but said IEEPA does not give him that power. 

“I’m not saying that the President can never impose tariffs under any circumstances,” Bonta said. “I’m saying he can’t impose the tariffs he’s imposed here under his cited authority under the IEEPA.” 

Bonta said California is asking the court to declare the tariff orders “unlawful and void in their entirety”. 

“That means he’s trampling over his own party, by the way, which currently controls Congress,” Bonta said. “Trump doesn’t have the singular power to radically upend the country’s economic landscape. That’s not how our democracy works.” 

California's economy is the world's fifth biggest. Photo / Supplied 

Outsized impacts 

Newsom argued that the tariffs have already inflicted billions of dollars in damage to the state’s economy. During the news conference Wednesday, he argued that “no state is poised to lose more than the state of California”. 

“That’s why we’re asserting ourselves on behalf of 40 million Americans,” he said. “The geopolitical impacts are outsized. The trade impacts are outsized, not just the economic.” 

The suit claims that California – the country’s most populous state – stands to suffer “unique harm” from Trump’s “reckless and unprecedented actions on tariffs,” and that any costs that go up because of the tariffs will be passed on to the state and its residents. 

“All told, President Trump’s tariffs will transform the State of California’s economic situation, put at risk its position as the fifth largest economy in the world, and directly impact Governor Newsom’s ability to deliver on his policy goals for all Californians,” the lawsuit states. 

Newsom said Wednesday that his Government has not only been in touch with other states over the negative impact the tariffs may have on their economies, but also with trading allies, including Germany, the United Kingdom and Canada. 

“They want to know that we’re a stable partner. They want to know we’re not going to turn [our] back as this administration’s turned their back on our allies,” Newsom said. “They want to know that, that we’re going to continue to have their back as it relates to addressing the anxiety and uncertainty.” 

Newsom said he knows that he, as Governor, has “no authority in terms of international trade,” but said he wants to make sure allies know that California wants them “back visiting the state”. 

Panic in the markets 

“We want them continuing to trade with the state,” he said. “We want to continue to maintain our dominance.” 

Last week, after touching off panic in the financial markets, Trump paused some of the large-scale tariffs that were slated to go into effect on more than 70 nations. He said he would suspend the tariffs for 90 days to allow his advisers to negotiate deals with individual countries and that they had started talks with nations that included Vietnam, Japan, South Korea and Israel. But Trump imposed a 10% tariff on virtually all imports and increased tariffs on China to more than 100%. 

The President declared a national emergency to impose the tariffs, pointing to the annual merchandise trade deficit that the United States has run each year since 1975. 

Bonta and Newsom are asking the court to immediately halt enforcement of the tariffs, invoking the Supreme Court’s “major questions” doctrine holding that the executive branch and federal agencies must have clear authorisation from Congress when taking actions that have significant economic and political consequences. 

California is the nation’s top agricultural producer, and it has a huge manufacturing sector that employs more than a million people. Mexico, Canada and China are California’s top three trade partners, and more than 40% of California’s imports come from those three countries – accounting for $203 billion of the $491b in goods that the state imported last year. 

California exported $183b in goods in 2024 – with those three countries accounting for more than a third of the purchases. 

Officials in California also have expressed alarm about the extent to which the tariffs could slow the pace of rebuilding after the wind-driven fires that ravaged the Pacific Palisades and Altadena earlier this year. The tariffs could affect the state’s ability to import enough timber, wood, steel, aluminium and components needed for drywall, among other construction materials, the officials say. 

-Washington Post, Maeve Reston, Mariana Alfaro