California’s Governor and Attorney General have filed a lawsuit, asking a federal court to block Donald Trump’s “illegal” tariffs, accusing the president of overstepping his authority and causing “immediate and irreparable harm” to the world’s fifth-largest economy, reports The Guardian.
The lawsuit, announced April 16 in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s podcast, argues that the U.S. constitution explicitly grants Congress the power to impose tariffs, and that the president’s invocation of emergency powers to unilaterally escalate a global trade war, which has rattled stock markets and raised fears of recession, is unlawful.
“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 is the U.S.’s largest importer and second-largest exporter, with an economy larger than most countries, and relies heavily on trade with Mexico, Canada and China.
