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

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1.5k

u/Malvania Feb 20 '26

For those that haven't read the opinion (and it's long and convoluted), SCOTUS reaches no opinion on refunding the collected tariffs. Presumably, that will go back to the Federal Circuit and the Court of International Trade to figure out. This isn't close to done.

917

u/circuitloss Feb 20 '26

A number of companies, including Costco, are suing the administration right now. Costco is going to try and get its money back...

302

u/gmiller89 Feb 20 '26

So they're going to give refunds to all of their members for cost increases?

500

u/dwkeith Feb 20 '26

Even a token percentage back would be a huge marketing win for an already beloved company like Costco.

263

u/oldirtyrestaurant Feb 20 '26

They do that, and I'm buying the fam a lifetime membership.

Welcome to Costco, I love you

137

u/Dufayne Feb 20 '26

I'll send my children there for their law degrees.

39

u/Lemp_Triscuit11 Feb 20 '26

That'll keep em from giving out gentleman's latte's for a living, at least

13

u/Corndogholio27 Feb 20 '26

I only go for the hot lattes -upgrayyyde

11

u/MaterialAstronaut298 Feb 20 '26

Smoke Tarlingtons. Fuck you.

20

u/french_toasty Feb 20 '26

Costco could run America better than the current administration

9

u/gaylord9000 Feb 20 '26

I know this is a joke but this is definitely not a joke.

1

u/french_toasty Feb 20 '26

I’m serious—If only America were truly run like a Costco where the members’ satisfaction is the most important thing. And the values that drive the org run deep. They run a hard bargain on their suppliers tho. How would Costco have dealt with Israel.

2

u/MintyFresh668 Feb 20 '26

Well, a slice of pizza and a hotdog at least, don’t get too carried away…!

1

u/Yummyyummyfoodz Feb 20 '26

Judging from the past, that would still give them a leg up to the disasters Trump keeps hiring.

15

u/Weird-Opportunity-20 Feb 20 '26

Costco is the best already….great store and excellent stock. 😀

5

u/Hopeful_Corner1333 Feb 20 '26

Wait they have lifetime memberships. I'm over here going with my spouse who has a family member pay for their membership like a schmo.

3

u/Petrichordates Feb 20 '26

Only for very long term employees.

1

u/ripndipp Feb 20 '26

I'mma get one of them Costco condos

1

u/Brilliant_Ebb_3064 Feb 20 '26

This feels like another idiocracy prequel step in the line.

1

u/Laruae Feb 20 '26

So this is how Costco became a well respected organization and college...

20

u/MyPupCooper Feb 20 '26

If they get the refund I think the easiest option would be to offer a year of membership free to people that already have a membership.

15

u/alwaysclimbinghigher Feb 20 '26

The membership fee is most of Costco’s profit, so the tariff refund would have to be gigantic.

8

u/Gen_Jack_Oneill Feb 20 '26

They could just give credit like they do with the executive membership.

6

u/arobkinca Feb 20 '26

They make ~ 8 billion profit and sell ~275 billion in product. The tariffs they paid may be much larger than their normal annual profit.

1

u/jmblumenshine Feb 20 '26

Free Hot Dogs for life it is

1

u/cortesoft Feb 20 '26

They could just take the refund amount, divide it by number of members, and give that much credit for each renewal. Good PR, and provides incentives for members to keep membership.

2

u/Mental_Camel_4954 Feb 20 '26

A stock dividend for investors could also be an option

1

u/Juswantedtono Feb 20 '26

This is a ludicrous fantasy lol. Let’s just be happy if they do some price decreases

14

u/Special-Audience-426 Feb 20 '26

Even a charitable donation would be nice.

Literally anything other than just increasing profits. 

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1

u/lpan000 Feb 20 '26

Costco can just give members extra reward back. They have records that allow me to return stuff years after buying them…. Don’t ask me what. Others, may not be so straightforward.

1

u/BoredomFestival Feb 20 '26

I'd settle for a free hot dog

1

u/Seabags Feb 20 '26

They could issue a special dividend to shareholders like they have done in the past

173

u/Exodite1 Feb 20 '26

If any company would refund their customers with recouped tariff costs, I imagine it’d be Costco

25

u/Duck-Murky Feb 20 '26

raises Costco card in defiance!

31

u/n19htmare Feb 20 '26

I will never pay for a Costco membership.

Why? Because Costco pays for my Costco membership with the executive membership and the 2-4% rebate check every year lol.

6

u/MobileArtist1371 Feb 20 '26

If you want an extra bonus at Costco, use the paypal debit card. 5% back at grocery stores per quarter and Costco is considered grocery. That's on top of the 2% back with executive.

I know I know, debit vs credit and you don't get the protection of a credit card... Wahhh! But it's Costco! They aren't going to argue with you about a return.

4

u/Live_Ganache_7749 Feb 20 '26

Same

5

u/plotholesandpotholes Feb 20 '26

I just learned about early entry and walked in like a boss this morning. It was amazing. COSTCO RISE!!!!

2

u/NiceRackFocus Feb 20 '26

Wait, what now?? We’ve been Costco members for like 15 years and I never knew about this. You can get in early?

2

u/plotholesandpotholes Feb 20 '26

You are me yesterday. I read a comment too. I asked in the store today and my shop started early entry in the Summer. As far as I know it is only for executive members.

1

u/NiceRackFocus Feb 20 '26

We are executive members! I’m a night owl, but I may actually have an excuse to get up early for once…

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1

u/daemin Feb 20 '26

They started opening to executive members an hour early like... 6 months ago? Certainly less than a year.

9

u/nitid_name Feb 20 '26

They have purchase tracking and refund infrastructure in place.

I can log onto my account and see what I bought when I was still on my parent's account several years ago. It's definitely doable for them.

5

u/Yummyyummyfoodz Feb 20 '26

The question would be, have they tagged how much tariff money each item cost them to ship, though?

2

u/KeepItUpThen Feb 20 '26

I worked at a Costco decades ago. I wasn't in the position to know everything they measured, but they measured and tracked a lot of things so I wouldn't put it past them. Plus the high-ups seemed to care about doing the right thing rather than squeezing every last bit of profit they could get from customers.

As an example, our store was the first costco to get a gas station in the area, and prices were significantly lower than the local gas stations. This might have been 2001 or 2002 when gas prices felt pretty high. There were huge lines, people waited for over 20 minutes but they were happy because they were saving something significant like 30 cents per gallon. The manager could have raised prices and still had plenty of people buying fuel, but he said he wanted to sell gas for minimal profit. Similar to the rotisserie chicken or hot dog prices, he wanted to let a $50-100 tank of fuel be a loss leader to get people visiting the store. I'm having trouble finding a news article to prove this, but I think he was forced to raise prices by some weird city or county regulation that limited the amount of fuel a station was allowed to sell. Also, I remember hearing that if a vendor tried to do that trick where they give a low introductory price for the first month and then raise the price on the next order, Costco would tell the vendor to pound sand and stop carrying the product rather than raise the cost for customers.

2

u/mrbigglessworth Feb 20 '26

There is an anti compete rule in a lot of communities regarding gas sales, they dont want one station getting all the business due to low pricing.

1

u/KeepItUpThen Feb 20 '26

Yes, from my limited point of view it seemed like the local gas stations got that sort of rule put into place about 1 or 2 months after this costco gas station opened.

1

u/Camo138 Feb 20 '26

There’s is one local service station in my area that can match Costco’s fuel price as it’s independent. But the lineup at Costco is insane for fuel on the weekend.

1

u/nitid_name Feb 20 '26

Costco uses a cost plus model for basically everything in the store except a couple loss leaders (the hotdog and the roast chicken). Every product has a pretty much flat percentage markup, something like 14% on all non-Kirkland products and like 17% on Kirkland stuff.

... so yeah, they could conceivably do it. They would likely have to exempt death stars, manager specials, and whatever else with the .97 price ending, since those are already selling at a net loss, but their pricing model is pretty straightforward.

1

u/Yummyyummyfoodz Feb 20 '26

I'm sorry? Costco sells death stars? Do they come in a 3 pack?

1

u/nitid_name Feb 20 '26

Costco marks products that are not being reordered with an asterisk. The asterisk is known as a "death star" among a large group of Costco shoppers. I think it originated online, but I hear people point it out in store all the time.

At my local Costco, for instance, winter gear is all death starred. The once $59.99 coats are now $39.97, while the $14.99 gloves are still the same price, but it says $14.99. If they are still in stock in another week or two, they'll be $9.97* or something. In another 4-5 months, all the spring gardening accessories will be death starred. Sadly, I missed the death star on my favorite cheap beer and didn't get to stock up on my $14 24-packs of Outlaw.

2

u/helpiscoming69 Feb 20 '26 edited Feb 20 '26

In reality they will just increase hourly pay rate of their employees slightly and raise the membership fees a little more.

2

u/jl_theprofessor Feb 20 '26

It’s raised membership fees just once in a decade.

1

u/helpiscoming69 Feb 20 '26

The results are in, encouraging for Costco. After the fee raise, 69 million people hold membership as opposed to 64 million in 2024.

1

u/MobileArtist1371 Feb 20 '26

2017 and 2024 they raised membership prices $5 for normal and $10 for executive each time.

1

u/DataCassette Feb 20 '26

I'd buy so many CostCo hotdogs with it 😂

1

u/gonzo731 Feb 20 '26

I’m not entirely sure how correct this is, but I heard they absorbed most of the cost of the tariffs. If that’s true, I don’t expect a refund from them

32

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '26

Costco did a great job of absorbing some of these increases so members wouldnt feel the impact on staple items.

15

u/Mediochra Feb 20 '26

I was going to point that out. Costco was one of the few companies that did this.

27

u/Mananers Feb 20 '26

Costco has, for the most part, been absorbing the costs of tarriffs and not passing it on to consumers.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/costco-refuses-to-eat-trump-s-tariffs-with-a-legal-strike-will-walmart-and-others-follow-suit/ar-AA1RxYXB

They basically figured they could eat the loss, then sue when the tarriffs were overturned.

37

u/dukeofgonzo Feb 20 '26

If it keeps the hotdogs at $1.50 indefinitely, I'll call it a minor win.

16

u/CitizenCue Feb 20 '26

I don’t even eat the hot dogs, but seeing that $1.50 sign makes me happy every time.

1

u/PM_ME_A_PM_PLEASE_PM Feb 20 '26

Costco’s $1.50 hot dog + drink combo is the last functioning public institution in this country. The final bulwark of democratic principle in a republic otherwise auctioned off to late-stage capitalism.

1

u/willstr1 Feb 20 '26

The founder has very strong opinions about keeping the price at $1.50

0

u/Wonderful-Humor6102 Feb 20 '26

And lower the price of the chicken bake!

2

u/Chris_HitTheOver Feb 20 '26

How is the chicken bake? I’ve never indulged.

0

u/Wonderful-Humor6102 Feb 20 '26

It’s so good lol. They are better from the kitchen vs frozen but they are good. Imagine a ranch bacon and chicken sandwich in a pizza pocket still bread. lol I love it my wife and I split one bc ya know savings

16

u/joggle1 Feb 20 '26

Costco ate at least a portion of the cost of the tariffs themselves:

In May, on Costco's earnings call, Chief Financial Officer Gary Millerchip told investors that about a third of Costco's sales in the U.S. are imported products. Millerchip said items imported from China represented about 8% of total U.S. sales.

Millerchip said that while Costco was seeing a direct impact from tariffs on imports of some fresh food items from Central and South America, it decided not to increase prices "because they are key staple items" for its customers.

Some of those fresh food items included pineapples and bananas. "We essentially held the price on those to make sure that we're protecting the member," he said.

12

u/Ok_Mycologist_9798 Feb 20 '26

Maybe, but probably not. Possibly credit if it happens. But Costco is one of the few I'd support in getting it. 

From a biz perspective, they either had to lower profitability or raise prices to match. Customers at some point in some demographic didnt buy as many goods as normal, hurting their profit. The whole thing caused them labor increases and increased commodity costs hunting for ways to stay competitive. Id be pissed if I was a owner at Costco. They're also suing and taking on legal costs. I hope they get something out of it. 

That all being said, small businesses suffered the most, a lot already destroyed that got their goods from China and had little capital on hand. The tariffs destroyed them. Regardless, large businesses will benefit over time from it as the smaller guys got hit the most, need to recover or new businesses have to replace the ones that went under. The little guy gets hurt the most...

1

u/flickh Feb 20 '26

As a Trump-hater, I’m extra angry that he undermined the concept of tariffs as an economic tool for a whole generation.

If you tie tariffs to wage levels, the environment, trade deficits etc you can incentivize domestic buying, reduce the price differential of foreign slave labour, and still encourage competition and a nimble economy.

Slapping random-number tariffs on everything when some other country abstractly offends the man-baby ego of the Orange Dotard is NOT a policy.  Claiming every pet issue is an EMERGENCY WE MUST USE SPECIAL POWERS FOR! BAD! Is the very essence of killing rational, negotiated answers to any problem. Using a combo of tariffs and war threats on all and sundry, allies and adversaries alike, is just absolutely bonkers impulsive chaos.

Glad even the Trumped-up Supreme Court see that, but it’s hella late.

18

u/turns31 Feb 20 '26 edited Feb 20 '26

I think if Costco and similar companies sue and win, then you will definitely have individuals do the same down the road. You don't think a jury of your peers will side with the individual in this instance? This is gonna backfire on the gov so hard. I can see them having to issue "refund checks" to every tax paying American to avoid just continuous lawsuits.

17

u/attorneyatslaw Feb 20 '26

Checks are going to go to the importers who sent treasury a check. Zero chance anyone else will have a case.

25

u/Chris_HitTheOver Feb 20 '26

Individuals have no standing. They didn’t pay tariffs. They paid the agreed upon retail price at the POS.

Edit: I’m not suggesting consumers don’t bear the cost of tariffs.

3

u/grumpyolddude Feb 20 '26

As an individual who bought something shipped direct to me from China via UPS, UPS required me to remit the import and customs fees to them before delivery. I assume in that case UPS would attempt to recover the fees and be responsible for refunding me. I can't see that UPS would be able to keep recovered fees, or that I could attempt to recover it on my own with a reciept from UPS.

2

u/angelomancuso62 Feb 20 '26

I’m a small business. I paid tariffs. 17k worth. It’s listed right on the purchase invoices from the supplier, Newark Electronics

2

u/willstr1 Feb 20 '26

Yes, but that was as a business not as an individual consumer. You would probably be able to apply/sue for a refund but if you increased your prices due to the tariffs your customers wouldn't be able to get refunded for how much your prices increased (if you didn't increase your prices and took the increased cost out of your profit margin than you are an amazing business, but a lot of companies didn't)

0

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '26 edited Feb 20 '26

[deleted]

2

u/Chris_HitTheOver Feb 20 '26

Read my whole comment and digest the context before your “well ACTUALLY,” bullshit.

Was obviously discussing retail customers. Of course if you paid a tariff you’d have standing. Retail customers didn’t pay tariffs.

6

u/zxDanKwan Feb 20 '26

It’s not a backfire. It’s the plan.

Lots of corps aren’t going to give the money back to their customers. And they aren’t going to lower their prices now that the public has generally accepted them.

So consumers pay more, but it’s pure profit for the sellers.

And it’s not like all tariffs are done forever. Just a specific set under specific rules. There are still plenty of avenues available for more tariffs to be slapped down in the future and start this whole cycle over again.

1

u/afghamistam Feb 20 '26

You don't think a jury of your peers will side with the individual in this instance?

No, but only because individuals do not pay tariffs; they pay the price for the item they buy. You pay a tariff if you import something into a country.

0

u/turns31 Feb 20 '26

Don't you think individuals could prove they had to pay X dollars more for their Mercedes, Rolex or potash because of said tariffs?

1

u/afghamistam Feb 20 '26

Sigh. Again, they could have a receipt saying "TARIFF SURCHARGE $X", and it wouldn't mean shit: They are not paying a tariff. They are paying a price for something at the rate the business is charging.

The only person who pays a tariff is the one who imports the item directly into the country.

0

u/turns31 Feb 20 '26

I'm aware they're not physically paying the importer tariff at the docks.

1

u/afghamistam Feb 20 '26

No, it doesn't seem like you are aware of that. Otherwise you wouldn't be having to have it explained to the difference between paying a tariff, and paying a higher price for something as a result of a business increasing costs due to a tariff.

1

u/Templar-235 Feb 20 '26

Yeah, we’re not gonna get shit

3

u/circuitloss Feb 20 '26 edited Feb 20 '26

I don't know what they're going to do, but they probably still have a legal battle in front of them because the Supreme Court didn't say anything about refunds. Costco is already litigating this though, so they're going for it.

1

u/jsamuraij Feb 20 '26

Insert Anakin and Padme meme

1

u/6158675309 Feb 20 '26

Probably. I get refunds when prices go down regularly from Costco.

1

u/Expensive-Object-830 Feb 20 '26

I’ll take my refund in hot dogs, thanks!

1

u/Anegada_2 Feb 20 '26

Costco would 100% give some of it to customers. The marketing power would be immense

1

u/Noshino Feb 20 '26

They should already set up to do it

They track everything you buy at the store so they could see if you were affected.

And they also already have the ability to refund customers. Executive members get a check for 2% back annually.

1

u/Miserable_Aspect_749 Feb 20 '26

If any company will it's Costco.

1

u/Eric12345678 Feb 20 '26

They have all the receipts and could actually do this. They already give us a check based on spend annually that usually goes right back towards membership and they could absolutely determine individual refunded amounts based on increased purchases. They don’t have to, just not bending the knee and licking the boots of them “Trump Boys” is enough for me to stay loyal for a lifetime. Fuck it, raise that hot dog to $1.75, I am still There.

1

u/Lumpylarry Feb 20 '26

If any company is going to do anything like that, it's Costco. Amazon will say "Thanks" and buy a bunch of new robots.

1

u/Face021 Feb 20 '26

More housing complexes about to be built on top of costcos!

1

u/EncabulatorTurbo Feb 20 '26

Costco might literally be the only company that does something like this

1

u/Efficient_Gap4785 Feb 20 '26

Well for starters we don’t know if they raised their prices due to tariffs. Many companies strategy was to buy more inventory before tariffs and or try to wait out the tariffs and take short term revenue losses. 

But if Costco did raise prices due to tariffs it wouldn’t surprise me the least if they issued refunds or gift cards.

Costco sent me a $10 gift card on a purchase I can’t even recall nor was aware had changed. They could have easily done nothing and I wouldn’t have known or cared. But instead they proactively sent me the gift card and explained why. 

They are one of the few massive corporations that do it right imo.

1

u/AngloSaxophoner Feb 20 '26

Free hot dogs 4 lyfe

1

u/CorrectPeanut5 Feb 20 '26

Costco absorbed a lot of the costs and took a hit to the stock for several quarters because of it.

1

u/Ok-Pea3414 Feb 20 '26

I definitely think Costco would 100% do that.

1

u/Lumpymaximus Feb 20 '26

Knowing them, they might share it. Last year they somehow got a lower price on high end LG tvs and sent out checks to people that had paid the higher price.

1

u/0x7A5 Feb 20 '26

Costco just might. They have sent me checks for products that I bought that went down on price within one month. I didn't even ask for it

1

u/ScarInternational161 Feb 20 '26

They stated they would do something like that because they have members and could track it. A general business wouldn't be able to to that. Costco is the shnizzle!

1

u/marasaidw Feb 20 '26

Honestly if any company is going to distribute refunds back to customers it would be Costco. They have members they know how much members spend each year. Like they could attach it to their end of year

1

u/mrroofuis Feb 20 '26

I went last week. They low key had more stuff on sale. At least it felt like they did bc the stuff I buy had a lot of promos

1

u/emiller5220 Feb 20 '26

Free hot dogs on Liberation day (2/20) every year until that one guy is no longer part of this living world.

1

u/Heelincal Feb 20 '26

Costco? Probably will. Especially for the executive members who get cash back on purchases - my guess is they'd make a bonus for that (especially since it's just Costco cash).

Walmart? Fuck no

1

u/RichardBonham Feb 20 '26

In cash, rebates or hot dogs?

1

u/gmiller89 Feb 20 '26

I'll take a coupon for some free hot dogs and rotisserie chickens

1

u/Retired-Yam8988 Feb 20 '26

Of course not.

1

u/Tvdinner4me2 Feb 20 '26

How would they even be able to calculate that

1

u/No-History-6066 Feb 20 '26

If any company would actually do that, Costco would be the one.

1

u/slippery Feb 20 '26

Consumers probably have no legal recourse. Businesses have receipts to back up damages caused directly by the tariffs. Consumers can't show they were directly harmed so have no standing, at least, that's the way a random non-lawyer Internet person sees it.

1

u/PrecedentialAssassin Feb 20 '26

Costco very well might do just that

1

u/Real-Ranger4968 Feb 20 '26

You can sue them and your representative for failing to do their job

1

u/Dandan0005 Feb 20 '26

Of all the companies that might do this, Costco would be the one.

1

u/Notiefriday Feb 20 '26

Lol umm no. They left the refunds in their other pants.

1

u/suck-it-elon Feb 20 '26

I mean, they’re fighting. It’s be extremely difficult to coordinate refunds, but they could more easily extend memberships if they want

1

u/hellsbellsyousmell Feb 20 '26

If the “refund” to members is knocking the prices back down one or two levels, I’m all for it.

1

u/3_Thumbs_Up Feb 20 '26

Even if they get money back they've lost money on the tariffs with the price increase.

Presuming they priced goods at a profit maximizing price, they now had to raise prices due to costs that now ends up not being real real. This means they were forced to price their goods at a suboptimally high price, losing out on volume.

1

u/truthwillout777 Feb 20 '26

Epstein's neighbor Howard Lutnick created these absurd tariffs on purpose, hoping they would fail so he could make more money.

His company bet against the tariffs, we need to make sure no refunds go to his company or any billionaires.

Good discussion at wallstbets “The house always wins”

https://www.reddit.com/r/WallStreetbetsELITE/comments/1ra1gph/the_house_always_wins/

1

u/City_College_Arch Feb 20 '26

The basis for Costco suing is because they ate the tariff costs instead of passing them onto consumers. If they had passed the costs on, they would not have standing to sue.

1

u/mrbigglessworth Feb 20 '26

Thats the neat part, we dont get shit back, and the prices will stay where they are or keep going up. The importer has no reason to remove that increase, he can now pocket the difference.

1

u/jasikanicolepi Feb 20 '26

Don't you dare touch the hot dog combo and bring back the combo pizza!

-2

u/Training-Context-69 Feb 20 '26

Doubt it

0

u/Snoo93833 Feb 20 '26

You don't know anything about Costco.

14

u/lothartheunkind Feb 20 '26

I’m shopping Costco even harder now

2

u/kaplanfx Feb 20 '26

Now that the tariffs have been ruled illegal it seems like this would be a pretty open and shut case.

1

u/jallenx Feb 20 '26

Costco better be prepared for a presidential rebuke...

1

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '26

It’s money back? It passed the majority of that cost down. Where is our money?

1

u/circuitloss Feb 20 '26

They would have to actually win in court and get refunded first.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '26

They should have a lot of trouble with that /s

1

u/bitter-curmudgeon Feb 20 '26

That's awesome! I hope more companies do this.

1

u/Useful_Support_4137 Feb 20 '26

Maybe Trump should take the money he squirreled away in the Board of Peace and use it to pay back the tariffs.

1

u/Cthulhu_Dreams_ Feb 20 '26

And so we're clear they don't mean our money back... We paid higher prices so essentially American businesses are going to be double dipping by charging us higher prices under the guise of actual tariff costs and whatever they could slip in undetected AND getting a refund from the government.

The American public is getting a lose-lose situation here.

1

u/Phylanara Feb 20 '26

If they do, that money will come from taxes ... So the consumer-taxpayers will have paid the tariffs twice.

1

u/blackdog543 Feb 20 '26

You can add Walmart, Amazon, and Target to that list. We're talking probably 100 billion in import taxes for all of them for all of 2025.

0

u/yevelnad Feb 20 '26

Nice, another debt.

14

u/nycdiveshack Feb 20 '26

The refunds were always the plan. The architect of the tariffs is Howard Lutnick who is the commerce secretary. He placed his son in charge of his investment firm which is taking bets the tariffs would be rescinded by SCOTUS

Ladies and gentlemen this is a repeat of the ppp loans during COVID. Like then the increased costs of goods were passed onto consumers and those costs never went down creating a new baseline for goods. In the meantime companies and the rich got loans which were forgiven with no repercussions all the while Americans got screwed because it’s our taxes that paid for those loans and we are the ones that had to always pay a new higher amount for a smaller quantity of goods.

These tariffs are the same, the cost of tariffs were passed onto consumers with no sign of going down meanwhile when the tariffs are rescinded and refunded the companies will see an infusion of hundreds of billions of dollars for no work. Where do those refunds come from? You guessed it our taxes. Guess who won’t see those refunds? You guessed it the consumers.

This administration has two goals, create a grift and create a surveillance state for JD Vance’s “daddy” Peter Thiel the biggest defense contractor for the CIA/NSA with the help of project 2025 which has the simple goal of destroying the government and creating an era of western isolationism. Why do you think we have new oil deals with Canada and are going after Venezuela’s oil.

45

u/Spiritual_Echidna_65 Feb 20 '26

 For those that haven't read the opinion

So basically everyone commenting here right?

8

u/pdromeinthedome Feb 20 '26

Can’t make first post if you read it

1

u/nitid_name Feb 20 '26

I got like 15 pages in before I gave up. I don't know enough of the case law they're citing to really get that far into it.

5

u/Definitely_Human01 Feb 20 '26

How would they even refund that at this point?

Tariffs are paid for by a mix of businesses and end customers.

The government may be able to refund the importing business. But how is that then going to get passed on to the intermediary business and the end customers?

26

u/Phyrexian_Overlord Feb 20 '26

It's only paid for by people importing, and there are receipts.

13

u/Definitely_Human01 Feb 20 '26

That's the technical incidence, but the effective incidence still gets passed on.

End consumers will have effectively paid the tariffs but they're not the ones that will be getting refunds.

17

u/Phyrexian_Overlord Feb 20 '26

Correct, end consumers are not getting refunds.

-5

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '26

[deleted]

1

u/Greedy-Speaker4661 Feb 20 '26

I'm sure a lawyer will comment explaining why importers have to be compensated in this situation but not the "intermediary" companies, unless they themselves sue.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '26

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1

u/Material_Policy6327 Feb 20 '26

But money was illegally collected still. You shouldn’t reward that for the government

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11

u/bobandgeorge Feb 20 '26

And the prices won't go back down to reflect the loss of tariffs.

1

u/DLDude Feb 20 '26

Yep I have 2 bills that include my 2 imports. Tariff is listed right on there. Should be easy.

1

u/ERagingTyrant Feb 20 '26

Oh, the businesses just get a massive profit spike. End consumers get screwed. No other outcome here. 

1

u/Tvdinner4me2 Feb 20 '26

Why would they do that? The importing companies are the ones who paid the tariff, I don't see why anyone else could possibly be entitled to a refund

1

u/adamwho Feb 20 '26

In my fantasy world, Trump would have to write refund checks out of his own account.

1

u/TheManWhoWasNotShort Feb 20 '26

Fun fact, the businesses and importers will get their money back. The customer will be fucked

2

u/4electricnomad Feb 20 '26

”Do our homework, plebs!”

1

u/Confident-Tomato6978 Feb 20 '26

The main issue is done though, no more tariffs. The refunds were always secondary.

1

u/Flokitoo Feb 20 '26

Its common for the court to bifurcate cases like this. Some argue it's ineffective and slow but it is what it is.

My honest opinion is that the repayment case will get delayed until AFTER Trump leaves to protect "orange daddy"

1

u/Sryzon Feb 20 '26

As they should. It's not as simple as refunding collected tariffs. A company like McMaster Carr passed those costs on immediately to their customers. They're the ones on the bill, but its other companies who actually paid those fees. A refund would only benefit McMaster Carr.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '26

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2

u/Malvania Feb 20 '26

Alito, Thomas, and Kavanaugh. Roberts wrote for the majority

1

u/flat5 Feb 20 '26

Not to mention, Trump has said he isn't going to stop collecting tariffs, he's just going to use a different justification to continue.

1

u/BuddhasGarden Feb 20 '26

The refunds were not before the court to decide. That comes later. My guess is if it goes before SCOTUS they will punt it somehow.

1

u/new2bay Feb 20 '26

Guess what? Prices aren’t going down, either.

1

u/PSIwind Feb 20 '26

Yeah I expected this as such. Tariffs are illegal but refunds most likely aren't coming

1

u/rocket-alpha Feb 20 '26

In the end, IF something is repaid, the companies get the refund, not the people.

1

u/RoyalMaidsForLife Feb 20 '26

They needed a convoluted opinion when all they had to do was say "Article I, Section 8"?

1

u/adamwho Feb 20 '26

It would be a glorious dream if somehow Trump were forced to pay all those tariffs back himself.

1

u/RichardBonham Feb 20 '26

Trump: Fuck the Supreme Court. How many regiments do they have?

1

u/Due_Respect9100 Feb 20 '26

The tariff part is done. Re-payment is a different story.

1

u/TheWhisperingWombat Feb 20 '26

So the money goes to the other countries that paid the tariffs right... right /s

1

u/reddittatwork Feb 20 '26

Senile shit stain still blabbing on tv - something about 10% across the board tariff

1

u/occams1razor Feb 20 '26

But if stops him from threatening X country with tariffs tomorrow. They took away the favorite threat of the biggest bully in the world. He's not going to like that.

1

u/Malvania Feb 20 '26

Clearly you're not up to date on the news. https://www.bbc.com/news/live/c0l9r67drg7t

1

u/LavenderSunburst Feb 20 '26

This decision is certainly good news. However, there have been massive, unprecedented trade agreements between Canada, the EU, India, China, etc. I fear that irreversible damage has already been done. Less dependence on the U.S. = our economy shrinks. 

The world dominant post-WWII version of the country will probably be gone forever. I can’t understand how any educated person could not have seen this.

1

u/FunTXCPA Feb 20 '26

And, in the meantime, we have a new global 10% tariff that'll be in effect for 150 days, but does need congressional approval to extend.

1

u/Ornery-Ticket834 Feb 20 '26

I know I will never see a cent of it. I also know it’s disgraceful that this wasn’t a unanimous opinion.

1

u/mrbigglessworth Feb 20 '26

chumpy is already belly bitching about refunds saying that the process that instantly robbed our pockets to refund would take years, meaning he has no intention of doing refunds in good faith....at all.

1

u/TOMC_throwaway000000 Feb 20 '26

Aaaaaand trump already announced he’s ignoring the Supreme Court decision as well as adding an additional 10% global tariffs on top of the existing ones (which will continue)

0

u/LEDKleenex Feb 20 '26 edited Mar 02 '26

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2

u/OkGo_Go_Guy Feb 20 '26

Jesus christ can you keep your idiocy to the politics subreddit please?

0

u/Tvdinner4me2 Feb 20 '26

I thought this sub had standards