What the Supreme Court actually decided about tariffs (and what it means if you imported in 2025–2026)
TL;DR
In February 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 6–3 that the IEEPA tariffs imposed in 2025 were never lawfully authorized. Importers who paid those duties, across nearly every industry and country of origin, are now eligible to file refund claims through CBP's new CAPE portal. Section 301 China tariffs and Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs were not part of the ruling and remain in force. If your business imported into the U.S. between February 4, 2025 and February 24, 2026, much of what you paid in tariff stacks is potentially refundable, with interest.
What the Court ruled
The case is Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, decided February 20, 2026, on a 6–3 vote with Chief Justice John Roberts writing the majority. The ruling consolidated Trump v. V.O.S. Selections, Inc. and was argued November 5, 2025.
The legal question was narrow: does the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) give the President the power to impose tariffs? IEEPA gives the executive broad authority to "regulate" international economic transactions during a declared national emergency. The Trump administration used that authority to impose new tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico starting February 4, 2025, and a sweeping reciprocal tariff regime on nearly every country starting April 2, 2025.
The Court said no. IEEPA's text never mentions tariffs. Roberts's majority found that absence decisive: setting tariff policy is a core congressional power, and a statute that empowers the President to "regulate" cannot, on its own silence, sweep in the power to tax imports. Three of the six majority Justices (Roberts, Gorsuch, and Barrett) invoked the major questions doctrine, the principle that questions of vast economic and political significance require clear congressional authorization. Tariff policy is one of those questions.
The dissent (Thomas, Kavanaugh, Alito) read "regulate importation" more broadly and would have upheld the tariffs. They lost.
What the ruling covers, and what it doesn't
This is where it gets specific. The Supreme Court only invalidated tariffs imposed under IEEPA between February 4, 2025 and February 24, 2026. That means:
Refundable (struck down by the ruling):
- The 10–25% IEEPA tariffs on China, Canada, and Mexico from February 2025
- The "reciprocal tariffs" of 10% to 50%-plus on nearly all countries from April 2025
- Any IEEPA charge that appeared on entries during the covered window
Not refundable (still in force):
- Section 301 tariffs on Chinese goods (in place since 2018–2019)
- Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs (in place since 2018)
- The new Section 122 surcharge added February 24, 2026, after the ruling, under different authority
- Antidumping and countervailing duties
This distinction matters. An importer bringing apparel from China might have paid a stack of three duties on the same entry: base duty, Section 301, and the IEEPA layer. Only the IEEPA layer comes back. For importers bringing goods from countries hit only by the IEEPA reciprocal regime (most of the world outside China), the IEEPA portion can be the bulk of what they paid in extra duties.
What about refunds. Did the Court order them?
The Supreme Court did not order refunds directly. The opinion ruled the tariffs unlawful but left the remedy to lower courts and the executive branch. The U.S. Court of International Trade, presiding over related litigation, ordered CBP to develop a refund process. CBP launched the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries portal (CAPE) on April 20, 2026. The first refund wires landed in importers' bank accounts on May 12, 2026.
Refunds include interest, computed at IRS quarterly rates (7% for non-corporate filers, 6% for corporate filers as of Q1 2026), accruing from the day the duty was paid.
What you should do now
If your business imported during the covered window, you have a path to recovery. But the path runs through a portal, a declaration format, and ACE prerequisites that most importers were not built to handle. Phase 1 of CAPE covers roughly two-thirds of eligible entries (those unliquidated or recently liquidated). The remaining third is in limbo until CBP scopes Phase 2 or until claims move to court.
Most brokers are not filing for their clients. Most importers don't have the time or the ACE access to file themselves. That's the gap we exist to fill.
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