Tariff Ruling Kicks Off Messy Fight Over $170 Billion in Refunds

[LetMyPeopleVote]

This is from Kavanaugh's dissent


Back in August I posted following about tariff refunds.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220596612
There is going to be a messy fight over tariff refunds

Link to tweet

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/international-trade/tariff-ruling-kicks-off-messy-fight-over-170-billion-in-refunds

Tariff refunds for companies that paid tens of billions were left unresolved by the Supreme Court, which ruled on Friday that President Donald Trump didn’t have legal authority to impose the duties under an emergency law.

The ruling will kick off what could be a prolonged battle for importers and retailers to try to recoup as much as $170 billion in tariffs they’ve already paid to the US government.

Among the major questions left unanswered for US importers are the prospects and the process for recouping the money the government collected over the past year under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The vote was 6-3 against the Trump administration, with Justice Brett Kavanaugh writing in dissent.

“The court says nothing today about whether, and if so how, the government should go about returning the billions of dollars that it has collected from importers,” Kavanaugh wrote. “But that process is likely to be a ‘mess,’ as was acknowledged” during the court’s oral arguments in November.

US Customs and Border Protection so far has collected an estimated $170 billion in tariffs imposed by Trump using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the law at the center of the case, as of Dec. 14.

The court ruled that using IEEPA to impose tariffs wasn’t lawful, but the justices didn’t address whether importers are entitled to refunds, leaving it to a lower court to sort out those issues. The litigation will return to the US Court of International Trade for the next round of legal wrangling.....

While waiting for the justices to rule, more than 1,500 companies have filed their own tariff lawsuits in the trade court to put themselves in line for tariff refunds, according to a Bloomberg analysis.

The trade court in recent months has pressed the Justice Department for at least a hint of how it plans to handle the refund issue if it lost at the Supreme Court.

In written submissions, government lawyers have said that the administration won’t fight the court’s authority to order officials to recalculate tariffs, but left open the possibility that it might try to limit which importers are eligible.

I have seen reports of people selling claims for tariff refunds.

[NoMoreRepugs]

1. Every single thing VonSchitzInPants even "thinks" goes to shit eventually.

[UpInArms]

2. ETTD

nm

[meadowlander]

3. Ah yes, the well worn legal precedent that if it's hard to give back money you stole, you don't have to do it.

Just when I think I can't be any more embarrassed for America, "Justice" Kavanaugh sticks his head up again.

[leftstreet]

4. Unbelievable scope creep

Was he asked to rule on the mechanics of returning money? No. That's not (supposed to be) his problem.

Are the tariffs legal or not? Rule on that, then shut up

He sounds like the morons who claim we'd have eXpenSive haMburGers if we raised the minimum wage!

[meadowlander]

5. Can you imagine working your ass off every day since you were an early teen

to achieve a storied multi-decade legal career just so you can sit on the Supreme Court one day next to that human goober and a bunch of Christo-fascists openly taking bribes? I honestly don't know how the liberal justices do it.

It's not even "you don't have to give the money back" it's "you should be able to keep stealing it because it's too hard to give the money you've already stolen back".