U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks on tariffs in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 2, 2025. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Neal Katyal — the attorney who successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court against President Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs — now says it’s time for the federal government to “pay up” and refund Americans the billions of dollars collected through those unlawful tariffs.
In a Washington Post op-ed, Katyal says that in the federal government’s presentation to the courts, it made an explicit commitment: “to give refunds if President Donald Trump’s tariffs were declared illegal,” he writes. “Money collected without authority must be returned, and returned promptly.”
“Across the country,” Katyal argues, “businesses paid billions in unlawful duties. At several points along the way, government lawyers assured judges that there would be no ‘harm’ in allowing tariff collection to continue during the appeal process because duties later invalidated could be refunded — with interest. Businesses would be made whole.”
He adds that lower court judges “relied on the government’s representation that the injury was temporary and repairable. And our small businesses relied on it.”
Katyal says, now that the Supreme Court has ruled against the Trump administration, the president and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent are suggesting that refunds could take years — including possibly having to go through further litigation.
“This is wrong. The government cannot tell courts that refunds are simple and inevitable when seeking relief — and then imply they are complex and distant when the time comes to pay.”
“Those businesses are American,” Katyal concludes. “The money is theirs and should be returned to them without delay.”