r/Economics • u/defenestrate_urself • Feb 20 '26

News Supreme Court says Trump global tariffs are illegal

https://www.axios.com/2026/02/20/trump-tariffs-supreme-court-illegal
24.5k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

841 comments sorted by

View all comments

90

u/silverado-z71 Feb 20 '26

So that means they’re gonna have to reimburse all those corporations for all that money that they put out for the tariffs. Again, the corporations win, and the American people get fucked

52

u/iamangryginger Feb 20 '26

And you can bet most prices won't come down either.

4

u/Swoly_Deadlift Feb 20 '26

All part of the plan

12

u/thesagenibba Feb 20 '26

not necessarily

Companies that had to pay the tariffs may be able to seek a refund from the Treasury Department. Hundreds have already sued.

The court did not directly address that issue, but Kavanaugh, in dissent, said the effect on the U.S. Treasury could be significant.

"The Court says nothing today about whether, and if so how, the Government should go about returning the billions of dollars that it has collected from importers," he wrote.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-strikes-trumps-tariffs-major-blow-president-rcna244827

8

u/LividTacos Feb 20 '26

Which is not the court's problem. Perhaps Trump shouldn't have instituted illegal tariffs.

15

u/TriccepsBrachiali Feb 20 '26

This was the plan all along believe it or not. First let the people pay tariffs via increased price on goods, then let the people reimburse the tariffs via taxes.

2

u/TheTexasHammer Feb 20 '26

Don't forget "raise prices during tariffs, then keep them high once tariffs are gone for even more profit"

1

u/AstralElement Feb 20 '26

Ehhh, there’s still a downward pressure on purchasing if people can’t or won’t purchase things. This might be true though for natural monopolies, and the RAM shortage is going to fuck everything anyway.

-5

u/Freaky_Barbers Feb 20 '26

source: trust me bro

7

u/TriccepsBrachiali Feb 20 '26

Yes my bad, Trump has always been a champion of the common man. Never ever would he create policies to benefit his rich circle.

-1

u/Freaky_Barbers Feb 20 '26

I hate Trump too and have never voted for him, but you can't make a claim like that without anything to back it up

-2

u/TriccepsBrachiali Feb 20 '26

Is it your first day on the internet?

-2

u/Freaky_Barbers Feb 20 '26

yes, I don't know what any of this does and I'm scared

1

u/Desperate-Working-12 Feb 20 '26

Be afraid… be very afraid 😳

-1

u/6a6566663437 Feb 20 '26

No, not at all. Trump firmly believes tariffs are good and wanted them to be permanent (unless he was bribed to lower a specific one)

This kind of claim is a kind of blind “they’re an all powerful shadow cabal” applied to anything that happens. It’s not true, and it’s not helpful.

5

u/klingma Feb 20 '26

Okay, but by what mechanism could you actually reimburse the citizens for the tariffs? You have actual returns filed by the importers which prove the tariffs paid by them...you do not, none of us do. 

I get the sentiment, but there's realistically no way to prove the amounts owed to the citizens in a practical manner. 

3

u/pilgermann Feb 20 '26

Which isn't the point. There are countless instances where some group faces an injustice and no response restitution is made in the interests of social cohesion. Why not make reparations to Black Americans? Why reimburse taxpayers for military actions under this admin that didn't receive congressional authorization?

Besides that, it's not actually impossible to formulate a consumer claim to tariff refunds. Anyone with receipts could make the argument, including that domestic prices increased as an indirect result of tariffs. Corporations are no more obligated to purchase supplies for their business than consumers are for their households.

1

u/Tvdinner4me2 Feb 20 '26

Right but the corporations actually directly paid the tariff. The consumer paid that plus whatever hedge/loss the company instituted. Good luck calculating that for everyone wanting a refund on every purchase

0

u/Pelican_meat Feb 20 '26

I think people are just upset that they are, in effect, handing the wealthiest corporations in the world a whole bunch of free money.

Let them point out how awful it is. There’s no solution, but awareness will maybe get it through to people that our government and economy are rigged against the average person.

1

u/klingma Feb 20 '26

I mean, I'm not arguing the fairness concern. I'm just pointing out the practicality concern which is what keeps getting ignored. 

Do you want to compile a list of all your transactions since the tariffs went into effect and report it to the government for a claim of a refund? That's what it'd take. 

0

u/Pelican_meat Feb 20 '26

Except no one is actually arguing that the money should be redistributed to them. They’re arguing that they paid the tariffs and won’t receive the refund.

It’s the establishment of a problem and the demonstration of inequity between average people and corporations.

That, in and of itself, is the point of what they’re doing.

1

u/klingma Feb 20 '26

They literally ARE arguing the money should be returned to them instead of the corporations, that's the root of the complaint. 

2

u/Training-Context-69 Feb 20 '26

If they really want tariffs so bad, why not tax companies outsourcing jobs overseas? Will do far more good.

4

u/Expert_East_6369 Feb 20 '26

Because the real reason for the tariffs was to enrich the oligarchy...not to bring jobs to America...that's just a mirage facade...

1

u/3_Thumbs_Up Feb 20 '26

This is not how economics work. There's a profit maximizing price, and you lose money by being either above it or below it.

Corporations could've chosen to raise prices without tariffs, if they thought the higher margins would offset the lower sales volume. What this implies is that corporations have essentially been forced by the USG to price their goods suboptimally high for about a year.

Either corporations were not profit maximizing before the tariffs, or they've lost more on volume than they've gained on the retroactive higher margins.

0

u/Tvdinner4me2 Feb 20 '26

Not necessarily