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Xavier Becerra, California’s attorney general, has already sued the Trump administration more than 40 times, positioning himself on the front lines of the Golden State’s resistance to the president’s policies.

Yesterday, he added another big lawsuit to the tally.

Mr. Becerra, along with his counterparts in 15 other states, challenged President Trump’s plan to declare a national emergency in order to access billions more dollars for a border wall than Congress had granted him.

“President Trump treats the rule of law with utter contempt,” Mr. Becerra said in a statement announcing that the suit had been filed in Federal District Court in San Francisco. “He knows there is no border crisis, he knows his emergency declaration is unwarranted, and he admits that he will likely lose this case in court.”

It’s a fight that could have major constitutional ramifications. And California is playing a central role.

Here’s what else you need to know about the suit:

It’s not clear whether any of the fencing President Trump seeks to build would be in California. And it definitely won’t be built in some of the other states that have joined the lawsuit, like New York or Hawaii. So what specific harm gives California the right to sue over it?

Mr. Becerra told my colleagues that California and the other states have standing because residents of those states could “lose funding that they paid for with their tax dollars, money that was destined for drug interdiction or for the Department of Defense for military men and women and military installations,” if Mr. Trump gets his way.

In his statement, Mr. Becerra described President Trump’s move as “unilaterally robbing taxpayer funds lawfully set aside by Congress.”

Still, it’s a really complicated situation. Experts say the success of the lawsuit will most likely come down to legal questions like which entities have the standing to sue in the first place, rather than questions about what’s actually happening on the border.

Is this lawsuit the only challenge to President Trump’s action?

Not even close. The Trump administration is facing a wave of lawsuits that have rolled in since the president announced his plans last week. And Congress is on a separate track to challenge the emergency declaration, which could include another lawsuit.

Where is Gov. Gavin Newsom in all this?

He’s enthusiastically onboard with the lawsuit. In a statement sent out by Mr. Becerra’s office yesterday, Mr. Newsom echoed the language he used in his State of the State address last week.

“Rather than focusing on fighting the real vulnerabilities facing Americans, the President is using the powers of America’s highest office to fan the flames of nativism and xenophobia,” Mr. Newsom said in the statement. “Our message to the White House is clear: California will not be part of this political theater.”

(Read the full story about the lawsuit here.)

Here’s what else we’re following today

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• As more and more people are priced out of the Bay Area, its boundaries are stretching toward Sacramento and into the northern Central Valley, creating a kind of mega-region. Commutes are also growing longer and more arduous. [The Mercury News]

• And here are the 47 cities Gov. Gavin Newsom put on notice for not complying with their affordable housing plans. In his State of the State speech, he blamed local governments for not doing their part to alleviate the state’s housing crisis. [The Sacramento Bee]

• Senator Kamala Harris visited New Hampshire for the first time. [The New York Times]

• A rare but inevitable monster storm could overwhelm a flood control dam on the San Gabriel River and cause three times as much damage as a big earthquake on the San Andreas Fault. [The Los Angeles Times]

• Three people who were found slain in a Newport Beach home were identified as the suspect’s parents and a longtime housekeeper. [The Orange County Register]

• Crews rescued 16 riders from the Bayside Skyride at SeaWorld in San Diego last night. The ride malfunctioned after a gust of wind tripped a circuit breaker. [Fox 5]

More California stories

• Amazon is accustomed to entering markets and making competitors shudder. Not so with its movie business, though. Now, the company is giving Amazon Studios a kind of reset. [The New York Times]

• Lisa Taback, who worked with Harvey Weinstein on awards campaigns for best picture winners like “The Artist” and “The King’s Speech,” is in charge of the lavish effort behind Netflix’s bid to get “Roma” an Oscar. [The New York Times]

• Bruce Bochy, the Giants manager who guided the team to its first World Series title in San Francisco in 2010, then again in 2012 and 2014, will retire after the 2019 season. [The San Francisco Chronicle]

• “It’s probably the largest concentration of circus performers living and working under one roof.” A potential sale is spurring residents of an artists’ loft complex in Oakland to push for rent control. [KQED]

• A writer argues that Frieze Los Angeles, an art fair meant to show off L.A. as a global arts destination, sold a fantasy version of a real, textured city that deserves more than boosterism. [Hyperallergic]

• Road trip inspiration? Here are 10 revived roadside motels across the U.S. — although four of them are in California, of course. [The Guardian]

And Finally …

Stephen Curry was uncharacteristically not great at basketball on Sunday during the N.B.A. All-Star Game. But it didn’t matter, my colleague Scott Cacciola reported. Because Curry — who anchors a dominant Golden State Warriors squad — was in friendly territory.

The game brought Curry back to Charlotte, N.C., where he grew up and near where he went to college. Commissioner Adam Silver described the Currys as the city’s “first family.” Curry’s mother drained a half-court shot.

And even though Curry has tried to persuade his dad, Dell Curry, a former Hornets player who’s now a commentator for the team, to move to the Bay Area, the son knows his father will never leave.

“This is where home is for him,” Stephen Curry said.

California Today goes live at 6:30 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: [email protected].

Jill Cowan grew up in Orange County, went to school at U.C. Berkeley and has reported all over the state, including the Bay Area, Bakersfield and Los Angeles — but she always wants to see more. Follow along here or on Twitter, @jillcowan.

California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.

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