California Governor Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday that his state will file a lawsuit to stop President Donald Trump from forcing California to adopt his aggressive tariff policies, which have caused stock market chaos and global trade unrest in the weeks since they were revealed.
“President Trump’s unlawful tariffs are wreaking chaos on California families, businesses, and our economy — driving up prices and threatening jobs,” Newsom said in a statement. “We’re standing up for American families who can’t afford to let the chaos continue.”
California’s lawsuit will assert that the president’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to enforce a 10% tariff on all foreign imports is unlawful. The IEEPA also gives Trump the power to freeze and block transactions from foreign nations in response to potential, perceived international threats.
California’s lawsuit will not only argue against the legality of such powers but also contend that the implementation of Trump’s tariffs requires Congressional approval. Newsom is scheduled to discuss the lawsuit further with California Attorney General Rob Bonta in the Central Valley later in the day on Wednesday.
California will seek to have the court immediately block his tariff policies from being implemented in the state. California’s economy is the largest of any state, and Newsom has asserted that the tariffs, which Trump claims are “reciprocal,” have already caused inflation in California and resulted in billions of dollars in economic damages.
Newsom’s announcement comes over a week after the governor vowed in response to Trump’s tariff plan that California would continue to support “stable trading relationships around the globe.” It was announced the same day that Newsom was pursuing “strategic” ways to convince other countries to exclude California and its products from any retaliatory measures and tariffs.
For his part, Trump has insisted that his tariffs, which have been a cause for concern among both Democrats and Republicans, will allow the U.S. to find “economic independence” and increase stateside production of American goods.
