Democrats like Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) may have called the Supreme Court “evil” after it held that the Clean Air Act didn’t empower the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate coal plants out of existence, but now Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) is citing that very precedent in his new suit challenging President Donald Trump’s tariff regime.
“Where the economic and political significance is as staggering, and the power asserted is so novel and transformative as it is with the unprecedented tariffs that President [Donald] Trump has imposed here,” Newsom’s complaint reads, “the President must have ‘clear congressional authorization’ to justify his executive actions.”
Newsom’s complaint cites Biden v. Nebraska and West Virginia v. EPA, in which the court held that presidents need “clear congressional authorization” before undertaking a “transformative expansion” of presidential power. These holdings have since been dubbed the “major questions doctrine’ by legal scholars.
As Newsom’s complaint correctly notes, the International Economic Emergency Powers Act cited by Trump as the legal authority for his unilateral tariff regime has never been used by a president to impose tariffs.
“IEEPA was enacted by Congress as part of a series of reforms to limit presidential authority and to prevent presidential abuse of power,” Newsom’s complaint says, adding, “IEEPA does not provide clear congressional authorization for the President to impose tariffs.” In fact, while the law lists many specific things a president can do, Newsom notes, “this fulsome list of authorities does not include the power to impose tariffs, import duties, or taxes.”
Newsom is not the only plaintiff who has sued to block Trump’s unprecedented tariff policy. The New Civil Liberties Alliance has sued on behalf of a small business in Florida federal court, as has the Liberty Justice Center in the U.S. Court of International Trade. Newsom’s is the first suit from the left against Trump’s tariffs.
FEDERAL COURTS SHOULD BLOCK TRUMP’S ILLEGAL TARIFF REGIME
It is good to see plaintiffs from both the right and left fighting to stop Trump’s illegal tariff regime. It is especially welcoming to see Democrats such as Newsom, who celebrated unlimited executive power when former President Joe Biden was in office, embrace the Supreme Court’s limitations of those powers now that Trump is president.
Hopefully, Newsom and the Supreme Court’s other detractors will be more supportive of limits on executive power the next time a Democrat is in the White House.