- California AG Rob Bonta and Governor Gavin Newsom filed an amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, urging the Court to hold that President Trump’s imposition of tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) was unlawful.
- The brief argues that the President lacks independent authority to impose or alter tariffs and asserts that the IEEPA does not delegate any tariff-imposing power to the President. The brief further provides that while the IEEPA allows the President to take certain specified actions in response to a declared national emergency arising from foreign threats, it contains no reference to taxing or tariff authority.
- AG Bonta and Governor Newsom urge the Court to safeguard the separation of powers by ruling that the IEEPA does not authorize the President to impose tariffs at all, or, in the alternative, affirmance of the Federal Circuit’s en banc decision that, even if the IEEPA delegates some tariff authority, the tariffs at issue exceed any permissible delegation.
- We previously reported on AG Bonta’s filing of a separate lawsuit challenging the Trump Administration’s use of the IEEPA to unilaterally impose tariffs; that case is currently held in abeyance pending the Supreme Court’s decision in Learning Resources.