The Supreme Court struck down the emergency tariffs. Getting the money back is a separate fight

When the Supreme Court decided Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump on February 20, 2026, it settled the legal question that had hung over American importers for a year. By a 6 to 3 vote, the Court held that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, does not allow the president to impose tariffs. The broad duties the administration had levied under that law were unlawful.

What the ruling did not do was send anyone a check. As law firms advising importers have emphasized since February, every refund requires an active filing by the importer. Eight months on, the refund process is running, billions have been approved, and a significant slice of the money is still in dispute. For small businesses that paid these tariffs, the details matter more than the headline.

The size of the bill

The numbers are large. According to figures cited by Holland & Knight, U.S. Customs and Border Protection received more than 53 million entries subject to IEEPA duties from more than 330,000 importers, with collected and estimated duties totaling about $166 billion. The pace has picked up since spring. At a June 9 court hearing, a CBP official reported roughly $90 billion in claims accepted and about $23 billion sent to the Treasury Department for refund, according to Holland & Knight’s account. By October 2, CAPE had accepted about $136.6 billion in potential and certified refunds for processing, with $126 billion sent to the Treasury for disbursement, Supply Chain Dive reported.

Many of those 330,000 importers are small. A retailer that brought in one container of goods from overseas, a manufacturer that imported a component, or a business that bought through a freight forwarder acting as importer of record may all have paid IEEPA duties.

How the refund process works

On March 4, the Court of International Trade ordered CBP to process entries without the IEEPA duties: to liquidate entries that had not yet been liquidated without those tariffs, and to reliquidate entries that had been liquidated but were not yet final. Two days later, Judge Richard Eaton suspended the order to give CBP time to build a refund process inside its Automated Commercial Environment, the electronic system importers and brokers use to file entries.

The result is CAPE, which CBP has rolled out in phases:

• Phase 1, launched April 20, covered unliquidated entries and entries within 80 days of liquidation.
• Phase 2, launched June 29, added certain reconciliation entries and entries subject to antidumping and countervailing duties.
• Phase 3 covers finally liquidated entries, but only for importers that are plaintiffs in pending trade-court cases and whose entries fall under a court reliquidation order. CBP had targeted late July, delayed it, and in a September 15 court declaration set a launch date of October 6, according to Thompson Hine and C.H. Robinson. Supply Chain Dive has since reported that CBP began paying refunds on finally liquidated entries.

The key word is liquidation. In customs terms, liquidation is CBP’s final computation of the duties owed on an entry. Before liquidation, or shortly after, an entry can be adjusted relatively easily. Once liquidation becomes final, reopening it is much harder.

The contested part: finally liquidated entries

On June 3, the government appealed the trade court’s refund order to the Federal Circuit. According to Jackson Walker and Holland & Knight, the appeal does not contest refunds on entries that are unliquidated or within CBP’s 80-day voluntary reliquidation window. It targets refunds on older, finally liquidated entries. The government has argued that CBP lacks authority to refund those without an importer-specific court order.

That makes the distinction between importers who sued and those who did not unusually important. A July order from the trade court, as Holland & Knight summarized it, confirmed that only importers that have sued will get full refunds, and CBP’s Phase 3 is limited to those plaintiffs. Trade advisers such as Warner Norcross + Judd note that importers with finally liquidated entries who have not sued would need to file suit at the Court of International Trade to use Phase 3. Analysts have also noted that if the government prevails on appeal, non-litigants could be cut off from those refunds entirely. As of the most recent public updates, the appeal had not been resolved, and importers should check the current status with counsel.

What replaced the IEEPA tariffs

The administration moved quickly to replace the invalidated duties. A temporary 10% surcharge on nearly all imports under Section 122 of the Trade Act took effect February 24. The trade court ruled it unlawful on May 7, but the Federal Circuit stayed that ruling on June 16, and the surcharge lapsed on July 24 at the end of its 150-day statutory limit. Tariffs under Section 301, including a new framework that Kroll and other analysts describe as aimed at forced labor, have since taken over much of that role.

For refund purposes, the point is that IEEPA duties, Section 122 duties and Section 301 duties are legally distinct. A refund claim for one does not cover the others.

A checklist for small importers

• Find out whether you paid IEEPA duties. If you used a customs broker, ask for a report of your entries since the tariffs took effect. If a supplier or forwarder was the importer of record, the refund belongs to them, and you may need to discuss how it is shared.
• Sort entries by liquidation status. Unliquidated, within 80 days of liquidation, and finally liquidated entries follow different paths.
• File through CAPE where eligible. Your broker can usually submit claims through ACE. Do not assume CBP will act on its own.
• Get advice on older entries. For finally liquidated entries, the choice between waiting, protesting and suing has deadlines attached. Customs law sets time limits for protests after liquidation, and a trade attorney can tell you which apply.
• Think about financing. Refund claims have become something lenders and claims purchasers deal in, as Sidley Austin has noted. Read the terms carefully; the discount reflects the legal risk.
• Book it correctly. A refund of duties you previously deducted may have tax consequences. Ask your accountant how to record it.

The Supreme Court answered whether the tariffs were lawful. Whether every importer gets its money back is being decided entry by entry, and the businesses most likely to recover are the ones that file.