Supreme Court nixes 'reciprocal' tariffs
The U.S. Supreme Court struck down the 2026 reciprocal-tariff scheme in a 6-3 decision, a move that could trigger as much as $175 billion in refund exposures for importers. The ruling reshapes trade risk and creates a major retroactive liability for firms that paid the levies.
The decision came in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, decided Feb. 20, 2026, with Chief Justice John Roberts authoring the Court’s opinion [supremecourt.gov] and Justice Brett Kavanaugh writing a dissent joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito [oyez.org]. On March 4, 2026 the U.S. Court of International Trade issued a universal order directing U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to liquidate unliquidated entries and reliquidate entries that are not final “without regard to” IEEPA duties, and the order said it applies broadly to all importers of record [hklaw.com]; the CIT order left unresolved whether fully final liquidated entries qualify for automatic refunds. [scotusblog.com] CBP told the court it had collected roughly $166 billion under the IEEPA tariffs across more than 53 million entries made by over 330,000 importers, and CBP said it needs about 45 days to build ACE system functionality to start issuing refunds [cnbc.com]. Analysts point to a large, Reuters‑requested Penn Wharton Budget Model estimate as the basis for systemic refund expectations [budgetmodel.wharton.upenn.edu], while the Cato Institute warned that delay in paying refunds could add about $700 million in interest costs to the tab for each month the government stalls [cato.org].
