Judge urges Trump admin to drop $166 billion tariff appeal

A federal judge is urging the Trump administration to drop its appeal of a court order requiring the government to refund approximately $166 billion in tariffs that were declared unlawful by the Supreme Court. The dispute, centered in the U.S. Court of International Trade in Manhattan, has escalated as the administration seeks to limit the scope of repayments to importers, potentially delaying the return of billions of dollars to hundreds of thousands of businesses.

Judge Richard Eaton has pushed for the administration to withdraw its appeal, filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on June 2, warning that continued litigation risks prolonging the refund process. The refunds stem from the Supreme Court's February 20, 2026 ruling, which found that tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) were unlawful. Following that decision, Judge Eaton ordered universal refunds for all importers of record, a scope encompassing more than 330,000 importers and 53 million individual customs entries.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) began processing refunds through its online CAPE system on April 20. As of early June, the agency had...