Scott Horsley

Sales at the home improvement chain have been fairly steady, despite the slump in home sales.

Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.

U.S.

Customs officials say they will stop collecting emergency tariffs just after midnight following Friday's Supreme Court ruling that those tariffs are illegal.

Importers who paid those tariffs over the last year will be looking for refunds, although the process for that has yet to be established.

President Trump moved quickly to replace the outlawed tariffs with a new set of import taxes set at 15%.

By law, those tariffs can remain in place for only five months unless Congress votes to extend them.

A 15% tariff would represent a discount for goods from some countries but an increase for other products.

That leaves U.S.

businesses and trading partners in some doubt about what future levies will look like.

Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.

A group of small business owners and states had challenged the tariffs, noting the 1970s emergency statute the president relied on never uses the word tariff.

A majority of justices ruled that absent specific authorization from Congress, that statute does not give the president power to order import taxes.

The decision invalidates about half the $30 billion a month in tariffs the federal government's been collecting.

Businesses that paid those taxes will be lining up to collect refunds.

The administration still has authority to impose tariffs on national security grounds or to address unfair practices, but those statutes are more limited than the sweeping powers Trump had claimed.

Even with the highest tariffs in nearly a century, the U.S.

trade deficit barely budged last year.

Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington.

The nation's gross domestic product grew at an annual pace of 1.4 percent in October, November, and December, compared to a rate of 4.4 percent the previous quarter.