Judge rules companies are entitled to refunds for Trump tariffs
overturned by the Supreme Court
[March 05, 2026] By
PAUL WISEMAN and MAE ANDERSON
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a defeat for the Trump administration, a federal
judge in New York ruled Wednesday that companies that paid tariffs
struck down last month by Supreme Court are due refunds.
Judge Richard Eaton of the U.S. Court of International Trade wrote that
“all importers of record’’ were “entitled to benefit’’ from the Supreme
Court ruling that struck down sweeping double-digit import taxes
President Donald Trump imposed last year under the 1977 International
Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).
The Supreme Court found those tariffs to be unconstitutional under the
emergency powers law, including the sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs he
levied on nearly every other country. The majority ruled that the
president could not unilaterally set and change tariffs because taxation
power clearly belongs to Congress.
In his ruling, Eaton wrote that he alone “will hear cases pertaining to
the refund of IEEPA duties.’’ The ruling offers some clarity about the
tariff refund process, something the Supreme Court did not even mention
in its Feb. 20 decision. Trade lawyer Ryan Majerus, a partner at King &
Spalding and a former U.S. trade official, said he expects the
government to appeal or “seek a stay to buy more time for U.S. Customs
to comply.″
The federal government collected more than $130 billion in the
now-defunct tariffs through mid-December and could ultimately be on the
hook for refunds worth $175 billion, according to calculations by the
Penn Wharton Budget Model.
Eaton was ruling specifically on a case brought by Atmus Filtration, a
Nashville, Tennessee, company that makes filters and other filtration
products, claiming a right to a tariff refund.
All goods that go through U.S. Customs and Border Protections enter a
process called “liquidation,” when the agency issues its final
accounting of what is owed. Once liquidated, importers have 180 days to
formally contest the duties. After that window closes, the liquidation
is legally final.
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Containers are stored in a cargo terminal in Frankfurt, Germany,
Monday, Feb. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
 The judge ordered customs to stop
collecting the IEEPA tariffs the Supreme Court struck down last
month on goods going through the liquidation process. And if the
goods were past that part of the process, the agency would have to
recalculate them without the tariffs.
“This is a great decision for importers and consumers who paid,”
said Barry Appleton, a law professor and co-director New York Law
School’s Center for International Law. “It will make customs brokers
busy. It should make things easier for the courts — and get a
process underway for those importers who paid within the last 180
days.”
On Monday, another federal court rejected the Trump administration’s
attempt to slow the refund process. The U.S. Court of Appeals for
the Federal Circuit started the next phase in the refund process by
sending it to New York trade court to sort out.
Now the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency must come up with
a way to process the refunds. Customs routinely refunds tariffs when
there’s been some kind of error, but its system was “not designed
for a mass refund,″ said trade lawyer Alexis Early, a partner at
Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner. “The devil will be in the details of
the administrative process.″
____
Anderson reported from New York.
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