The Trump administration is seeking a court delay in proceedings over whether it must refund billions of dollars in tariffs to importers that were recently invalidated by the U.S. Supreme Court. A U.S. Justice Department filing late Friday showed the government wants to wait up to four months before resuming proceedings in the U.S. Court of International Trade over tax refunds. Justice Department lawyers criticized lawyers for companies involved in a major case, accusing them of rushing to restart legal proceedings as quickly as possible.
“The complexity of the future situation requires a cautious and thoughtful approach rather than a blind pursuit of speed,” the Justice Department said.
The Justice Department appeared to acknowledge that tax refund proceedings would begin following the Supreme Court defeat, warning that "the process that follows will take time," noting that earlier cases of large-scale refunds took years to resolve.
But the document does not explicitly commit the government to fully refund all importers the tariffs they paid.
Justice Department lawyers wrote that delaying the proceedings would not harm the business because "monetary damages are typically remediable damages that can be remedied by appropriate payments of interest."
Last year, the government successfully persuaded a judge to allow relevant departments to continue collecting tariffs during the litigation, and told the Trade Court that if the plaintiffs won the case, "they will definitely receive tax refunds and interest."
By the time of the Supreme Court's ruling, importers had paid about $170 billion in disputed tariffs.
"The government cannot have it both ways," Sara Albrecht, president of the Liberty Justice Center, said in a statement. The legal organization has represented companies in Supreme Court cases.
"The government cannot argue that no harm was done because it can refund the tax, and then delay the refund," she said. "American businesses pay taxes that the government has no right to collect. This money does not belong to Washington, but to the hard-working American people."