Federal appeals court rejects Trump administration’s push to delay start of tariff refund process after Supreme Court ruling

Washington — A federal appeals court on Monday declined to delay implementation of the Supreme Court ruling that invalidated most of President Trump’s tariffs, allowing next steps in processing of tariff refunds to begin swiftly, following the high court’s decision last month.

The decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit clears the way for the lower court, the U.S. Court of International Trade, to begin the process of crafting relief for the small businesses that successfully challenged Mr. Trump’s global tariffs.

The Trump administration had said it would issue refunds if the duties targeting nearly every U.S. trading partner around the world were ultimately found unlawful by the Supreme Court. The high court ruled in a 6-3 decision that a federal emergency powers law known as the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, did not give the president the authority to impose tariffs.

But on Friday, the Trump administration asked the Federal Circuit to wait 90 days before issuing its mandate “to allow the political branches an opportunity to consider options,” after the Supreme Court’s decision. The high court did not address the issue of refunds in its ruling, which dismantled a cornerstone of Mr. Trump’s economic agenda.

Justice Department lawyers estimated that it could take years for the refund process to play out, even though Trump administration officials had been warning for weeks that the government could be on the hook to pay back the levies it collected from importers if it lost before the Supreme Court.

Lawyers for the small businesses that sued the Trump administration over the levies said the federal government has experience issuing tariff refunds and noted that administration officials have “repeatedly” made stipulations guaranteeing that the duties would be refunded — with interest — if they were struck down.

“Nothing about the refund issue warrants any delay in issuing this Court’s mandate, let alone a staggering three months’ delay,” lawyers wrote in a court filing Monday morning, adding “the proper time to issue the mandate is now.”

The Supreme Court’s ruling has already set off a wave of lawsuits before the federal trade court from businesses large and small seeking refunds of the import duties they have paid. Among the companies seeking relief from the Court of International Trade are FedEx, Revlon and Costco.

After the appeals court’s decision, Neal Katyal, one of the attorneys representing the small businesses, said his team “will be proceeding immediately to get the refunds Americans are owed.”