After the Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump‘s global tariffs, multiple businesses, including FedEx, lined up to seek reimbursements. Although the Department of Justice hasn’t requested a rehearing from the Supreme Court, according to court documents, the DOJ stated that the refund process will take a significant amount of time.
The New York Times reported the government could need 4,431,161 hours to complete the refund process.
The lengthy and complicated process has been marked by governors seeking refunds on behalf of their states’ residents and businesses filing lawsuits, hoping to get compensated. The DOJ reportedly tried to delay the refund process. However, a federal appeals court turned down the request.
A federal appeals court on March 2 denied a request from the US Department of Justice to delay the start of the refund process following the Supreme Court’s decision overturning President Donald Trump’s country-specific tariffs.
The move greenlights the next steps for companies… pic.twitter.com/sUapHw4jGH
— S&P Global (@SPGlobal) March 6, 2026
The Supreme Court cited a 1977 national emergency law, ruling that the Trump administration failed to provide legal justification for most of the tariffs it imposed. Trump publicly criticized the ruling in a series of posts on his Truth Social account.
He questioned whether the Supreme Court had in mind that it would cost the government hundreds of billions of dollars to return all the tariffs. He raised the possibility of a rehearing, “Is a rehearing or Readjudication of this case possible???”
“It doesn’t make sense that Countries and Companies that took advantage of us for decades, receiving Billions and Billions of Dollars that they should not have been allowed to receive, would now be entitled to an undeserved ‘windfall,’ the likes of which the World has never seen before, as a result of this highly disappointing, to say the least, ruling,” he wrote.
Hours after the hearing, Trump signed a proclamation using an alternative law from the Trade Act of 1974. This new law allows him to impose a new 10% temporary tariff on goods from all countries. Afterward, he threatened to raise those tariffs by an additional 15%.
President Trump remains adamant that he does not want to refund the collected tariffs. The Trump administration has suggested that it would take them years to complete all the legal formalities related to the refund process.
A federal appeals court has rejected the Trump administration’s request to delay next steps in the fight over tariff refunds for importers after the US Supreme Court struck down the president’s signature economic policy. https://t.co/drXUenszKO
— Bloomberg (@business) March 2, 2026
More than 53 million entries of covered goods were subjected to steep tariffs under the Trump administration. The government collected $166 billion under emergency duties. The administration had admitted that it would be detrimental to return the gigantic amount of money to the businesses. The U.S. Court of International Trade has reportedly begun reviewing all the refund requests.
It has given the DOJ till midday Thursday to provide an update.
In an affidavit filed last week, a customs official managing the DOJ’s refund process reported to the court. It said that computer updates that are meant to simplify the refund procedure will be ready by the middle of April.
