The Trump administration said it will appeal a judge’s authority to order across-the-board refunds of all tariffs ruled illegal by the US Supreme Court, potentially injecting legal chaos into a claims process that’s already underway.
The Justice Department filed notice on Friday that it will appeal a court order compelling customs authorities to recalculate all import taxes that the administration collected under President Donald Trump’s use of a 1970s-era emergency powers law.
Also read: US says $20.6 billion of tariff refunds on the way to importers
US Customs and Border Protection launched a new online portal to process refund claims on April 20, signaling that it intended to repay at least some of the approximately $166 billion in levies struck down by the Supreme Court earlier this year. But even as the administration has moved forward with that plan, the Justice Department declined to concede that a judge could exercise nationwide power to oversee the process, leaving open the possibility of another legal fight.
“For that reason, defendants intend to appeal the court’s universal injunction and to seek a stay of the injunction except as to the particular importer plaintiffs in each case in which the Court has entered the injunction,” the Justice Department said in the court filing Friday.
In a 6-3 decision in February, the Supreme Court held that Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, to impose sweeping global tariffs was unlawful. They were silent on the question of refunds, however, sending the litigation back to the US Court of International Trade in Manhattan to determine next steps.
Trade Judge Richard Eaton, appointed under former President Bill Clinton, was assigned to preside over thousands of lawsuits importers filed seeking to recoup the taxes they had paid before the Supreme Court ruled. Eaton ordered the customs agency to recalculate tariff amounts for all importers who paid the contested levies, not just the companies that had sued. The government also committed to paying interest on any refunds.
Uncertainty has loomed about whether officials would oppose repaying the full amount. Eaton has mostly held non-public court hearings to discuss the government’s progress, but he indicated in a public order there was disagreement about how to handle tariffs that became final, a process that happens automatically on a rolling basis.
Also read: US companies, shamed by Trump, tiptoe into $166 billion tariff refund race
A customs official had also disclosed in court filings that the first phase of the refund portal roll-out wouldn’t be able to handle a significant proportion of the import entries at issue, and didn’t provide a concrete schedule for expanding the system’s capabilities to deal with more complicated claims.
Trump, meanwhile, lambasted the Supreme Court’s decision and suggested that companies that didn’t seek refunds could reap political benefits in the future, saying that he would “remember them.”
Separate from the IEEPA legal wrangling, the Trump administration is before the trade court defending a new round of global tariffs that the president imposed under a different law shortly after he lost in the Supreme Court.
A three-judge panel declared the policy unlawful. But a federal appeals court temporarily paused that ruling while it weighs the government’s request for a longer-term order allowing customs authorities to continue collecting the levies as the court fight proceeds.
