The Supreme Court struck down a bunch of Trump's tariffs. Now what?
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Why were Trump's tariffs deemed illegal by the Supreme Court?
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Okay, Cara...
How do you feel? You saw? Yes, I saw the news and I never thought this day would come. Honestly, it's like, was the Supreme Court ever going to rule on it? Like, you know, were we going to be in this kind of like purgatory forever?
But it has come. So I'm so happy. This is Cara Dyer. She is a small business owner in the U.S. And the big news is... The U.S. Supreme Court has said that President Trump's giant sweeping tariffs that he imposed early last year are illegal.
Dunzo.
This is huge news. We are talking about his tariffs on products from all over the world, almost every single country, a different percentage tariff on each of them.
And those percentages, they've gone up and down and up and down for more than a year. But from early on, there were lawsuits against President Trump. States and companies and individuals saying that these tariffs, they are not legal. And now a lot of businesses and people like Cara, they're thinking maybe they could get some of the money they spent on those tariffs back.
OK, wait. So so what do you do now? Well, I've kept meticulous records and I will be asking for. Yeah, yeah, I did. Just every little fee and tariff. Yes, yes, absolutely. Absolutely. So like, OK, now they've ruled that it's illegal. Now we need to take some action and get those refunds back into the hands of businesses.
So far, the U.S. has collected more than $100 billion under these now illegal tariffs.
that's a lot of rebounds to give back. Right, yes. How do you know what to do, how to go about it? I don't.
Yeah, but now is when they would have to start and figure out a process to get those refunds going. So I'm also hopeful that that will happen.
That they will give you very clear guidance on how to get your money back? Might entail a little digging on your part, if I had to guess.
Hello and welcome to Planet Money. I'm Jeff Guo.
And I'm Sarah Gonzalez. And I'm Mary Childs. About a year ago, the Trump administration tried to use a law that was not designed for tariffs to impose the biggest, most disruptive tariffs we've seen in about a century.
This morning, the Supreme Court came back and said, no, you can't use that law to impose tariffs.
Today on the show, why are the tariffs illegal? And what does this mean for businesses, for Cara, for the rest of us? Are any of us going to get refunds?
Yeah, and also, what does this mean for the Trump administration's whole tariff policy? And what's up with this new 10% tariff he just announced today?
Also, a market for tariff refunds is already booming.
All right, first things first, what did the Supreme Court actually say today?
For that, we called up Georgetown Law Professor Kathleen Claussen, who is an expert on the law of tariffs. We had her on the show back when Trump's big new tariffs were first getting challenged in the courts.
She was the one who had explained to us at Planet Money that basically Trump created these big new tariffs under a law that no president had ever used before to create tariffs. That law is called IEPA.
What implications does the ruling have for businesses and consumers?
It stands for the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. And back when we first talked to her, here's what Kathleen told us.
We trade lawyers don't think of IEPA as a trade law. This is not something that I teach in my trade class. It's there. But it's not on the short list for how we think about imposition of tariffs in the U.S. economy.
And today, the Supreme Court told us what they think about AIPA and how Trump has been using it.
Actually, the justices had a lot of thoughts about AIPA. There are multiple opinions. The whole thing is 170 pages.
We knew it was going to be long, but 170 pages really is something.
Yeah, so this decision, it kind of landed on your desk with a thump.
It's a real thumb. I was going to show you I had printed it, but I printed it double-sided and two pages per sheet just to save the paper.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
Why were Trump's tariffs deemed illegal by the Supreme Court?
0:00–3:55
2
What implications does the ruling have for businesses and consumers?
3:55–7:24
3
Are there any refund options available for those who paid tariffs?
7:24–11:53
4
What steps should businesses take to pursue tariff refunds?
11:53–16:16
5
How is the new 10% tariff different from previous tariffs?
16:16–21:17
6
What is Section 122 and how could it affect future tariffs?
21:17–24:57
7
What challenges do businesses face in navigating tariff refunds?
24:57–25:40