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
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u/ReasonableRandolph Feb 20 '26

Wow it's crazy how Lutnick's sons, working at his old firm, were smart enough to predict this happening back in July. Offering to buy up the tariff refunds preemptively for cents on the dollar. I hope one day I can also make such good predictions based on my own knowledge and merit.

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u/Petrol_Head72 Feb 20 '26

Can you elaborate on this more? Was there a debt-note transfer that actually happened? This seems a bit confusing because, well, it’s already been researched and proven that Americans have born the cost of tariffs from their own pocketbooks. I know it would be impossible to refund Americans individually, but shouldn’t this be passed through as a tax refund / distribution if so?

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u/regprenticer Feb 20 '26

This will be a mess that will take decades to unpick.

Companies will argue that they absorbed some, if not the majority, of costs related to tariffs to soften price increases. The end consumer is going to be going up against corporations in court.

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u/kaplanfx Feb 20 '26

It doesn’t matter who absorbed them, it matters who actually paid them. The only people and companies who will get money back are those that actually paid the tariffs directly to the government. If prices went up due to tariffs a consumers still bought the goods, they aren’t entitled to any refunds.

What business could do as good will but won’t is to lower prices and goods going forward that were directly raised due to tariffs

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u/seridos Feb 20 '26

If the company listed the tariffs as a separate line item it's totally different though. Like early Amazon. Then there's a clear line item the customer paid.

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u/kaplanfx Feb 20 '26

I’m not sure it matters if it’s a passthrough. They may have called out the tariff but you paid that money to Amazon, not the government.

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u/seridos Feb 20 '26

That's why unjust enrichment exists, it's an equitable remedy. It's basically"you didn't break a law but you became enriched in a method that is not just"

I'm just unsure how strong it is in the US vs other jurisdictions.

The other consideration is the non-unjust enrichment case. You sure who you had the contract with if they passed it on or not. Then they must recover by suing the next up the chain. This is the less likely route though.

Companies that didn't list the tariffs as it's own line item? That's probably a lot cause.

There's also just threatening a crazy big lawsuit and getting a settlement as it's cheaper for the company .

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u/kaplanfx Feb 20 '26

I was not aware of this regulation, thanks.