‘Illegal, reckless’ policy — California sues Trump over new global tariffs
Gov. Gavin Newsom and California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Thursday announced that the state is joining other states in suing the Trump administration over new global tariffs, calling them one of the president’s “illegal, reckless policies” that harm working citizens.
The lawsuit follows President Donald Trump’s announcement of new temporary global tariffs after the Supreme Court struck down one of his key trade measures imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, including his so‑called “reciprocal” tariffs.
“These tariffs are nothing more than a tax on working families — shifting the burden of Trump’s failed trade negotiations onto folks who are already struggling to make ends meet. Trump keeps throwing out illegal, reckless policies, hoping something sticks, while everyday Americans pay the price,” Newsom said in a news release on Thursday.
“Trump’s tariffs were overturned by the Supreme Court, so now he’s inflicting new tariffs on Californians and all Americans like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum. Chaos is not leadership. And we deserve better.”
Under the Trade Act of 1974, the new global “Section 122” tariffs must be capped at an import rate of 15%, and the administration can keep them in place for up to 150 days before it needs congressional approval to extend them.
In Thursday’s announcement, Bonta reiterated California’s commitment to continue protecting “Californians who are already struggling with rising costs,” adding, “For the 60th time since he took office, we’ll see the President in court.”
The tariff uncertainty has rippled across a range of industries, including California’s energy sector. Following the Supreme Court ruling, Sacramento’s largest electric utility, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, told The Sacramento Bee that it was “evaluating the potential impacts,” noting the complexity of the situation.
In an interview with The Sacramento Bee in February, Andrew Campbell, executive director of UC Berkeley’s Energy Institute at Haas, said that although reciprocal tariffs were not the main factor behind higher energy bills, they had still been a “significant contributor” in driving up costs for large-scale, clean-energy projects in California.
Analysts have warned that Trump’s reciprocal tariffs are likely to raise near‑term costs for clean energy technologies and projects, while also creating longer‑term uncertainty for investors about U.S. policy stability and energy supply chains.
Center for Strategic & International Studies’ deputy director of the Energy Security and Climate Change Program, Leslie Abrahams, said, for instance, that the tariffs will make key grid components such as inverters and transformers more expensive just as electricity demand is projected to increase.
“The new proposal to replace the IEEPA tariffs would just be a similar level of tariff across the board, on all products,” Michael Davison, an associate professor in the School of Global Policy and Strategy at UC San Diego said in February following the announcement on Section 122 tariffs. “It would have the same effect as the prior tariffs.”
