Regulatory explainer · Updated July 3, 2026
The Supreme Court killed the IEEPA tariffs. Here’s what actually changed for importers — and the three deadlines left this month
By Annik Sobing, host of the Simply Trade podcast · Published July 3, 2026 · Vendor facts verified July 3, 2026
Learning Resources v. Trump (6–3, February 20, 2026) ended the IEEPA tariffs — but not the tariff era, not de minimis’s demise, and definitely not your paperwork. The short version: refunds are not automatic, a 10% Section 122 surcharge took the IEEPA tariffs’ place and expires July 24, Section 232 and 301 duties survived untouched, and USTR is racing to finalize replacement tariffs on 60 economies. Every claim below links to a primary source; where the law is genuinely unsettled, we say so instead of guessing.
What did the Supreme Court actually decide?
Chief Justice Roberts, writing for a 6–3 majority (with Gorsuch, Barrett, Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson; Kavanaugh dissenting, joined by Thomas and Alito), held that IEEPA’s authority to “regulate…importation” does not include imposing tariffs — taxing imports is Congress’s power, and under the major-questions doctrine an emergency statute silent on tariffs can’t carry them. Both the “Liberation Day” reciprocal tariffs and the fentanyl/border tariffs fell. CBP stopped collecting IEEPA duties at 12:01 a.m. ET on February 24, 2026 per CSMS #67834313, and ACE deactivated the IEEPA HTS flags the same day. One thing the Court pointedly did not decide: who gets refunds, and how.
Are IEEPA refunds automatic? No — here is the path for each entry
CBP built a new refund system — CAPE (Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries) — inside the ACE Portal. It is importer-initiated, pays with interest, and requires ACH enrollment (no paper checks since February 6, 2026). Your move depends entirely on each entry’s liquidation status:
| Your entry status | What to do |
|---|---|
| Unliquidated, or within 80 days of liquidation | File a CAPE Declaration now (CSV upload in the ACE Portal — Phase 1, open since April 20, 2026). Refunds with interest typically pay in 60–90 days. |
| 90–180 days after liquidation | File a protest within 180 days of liquidation to preserve the claim — outside CAPE Phase 1's reach, and the window is unforgiving. |
| Reconciliation-flagged entries (types 01/02/06) | CAPE Phase 2 accepts these since June 29, 2026, where the type-09 reconciliation entry hasn't been filed. |
| Finally liquidated, never protested, never sued | Genuinely unresolved: the CIT ordered nationwide reliquidation, the government appealed to the Federal Circuit (June 2026). Counsel are advising protective CIT actions where the money is material. |
Scale check: ~$175–179B in IEEPA duties collected per Penn Wharton (SCOTUSblog cites $200B+); CBP’s CAPE statistics showed ~126,000 declarations covering ~8.3M entries and ~$35.46B in anticipated refunds by mid-May 2026. A secondary market in refund claims is trading at reported $0.50–$0.90 on the dollar — a measure of how non-automatic this process really is.
What replaced IEEPA — and why July 24 is circled on every calendar
Four days after the ruling, a 10% global surcharge under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 took effect (HTSUS 9903.03.01, per CSMS #67844987) — 10%, not the 15% sometimes reported; 15% is the statutory ceiling. Section 122 carries a hard 150-day limit: it expires 12:01 a.m. July 24, 2026 unless Congress extends it, and Congress has shown no sign of doing so. It’s also already been invalidated by the Court of International Trade (May 7 — no qualifying balance-of-payments deficit) yet remains collected under a Federal Circuit stay. The intended durable replacement: USTR’s proposed Section 301 tariffs of 10%/12.5% on 60 economies (comments close July 6; hearing July 7). Whether those are final before the Section 122 sunset — or whether importers get a gap month — is one of the genuinely open questions of the summer.
Which tariffs survived the ruling?
| Program | Status, July 3, 2026 |
|---|---|
| Section 232 — steel, aluminum, copper articles | In force — 50% (modified April 6, 2026) |
| Section 232 — automobiles & parts | In force — 25% (since April 3, 2025) |
| Section 232 — semiconductors (advanced computing chips + derivatives) | In force — 25% (since January 15, 2026) |
| Section 232 — softwood timber & lumber | In force — 10% (since October 14, 2025) |
| Section 232 — pharmaceuticals | FORTHCOMING, not yet in force — 100% announced for July 31 / September 29, 2026 |
| Section 301 — existing China tariffs (Lists 1–4 + 2024 increases) | In force, unaffected by the ruling |
| Section 301 — NEW: overcapacity (16 economies) & forced-labor (60 economies) investigations | Proposed 10%/12.5% (June 2, 2026) — comment period closes July 6, 2026; not final |
| De minimis suspension (all countries, since August 29, 2025) | In force — re-grounded on CBP's own authority June 24, 2026; statutory repeal follows July 1, 2027 |
| Section 122 — the 10% global replacement tariff | In force under a Federal Circuit stay — expires July 24, 2026 unless Congress extends |
Section 232 detail per Covington’s tracker; de minimis re-grounding per the June 24, 2026 interim final rule.
What does this mean for your compliance software stack?
2026 has been a stress test tooling either passed or failed. Landed-cost engines must apply the rate in force on the entry date across a stack of base HTS + MPF/HMF + Section 232 + Section 301 + the Chapter 99 Section 122 heading + AD/CVD — and must have flipped IEEPA flags off and 9903.03.01 on within days. Refund recovery turned CAPE integration into a product category overnight (Thomson Reuters shipped ONESOURCE support), and scenario simulation became a procurement criterion. If your tooling struggled this spring, our pricing research maps what capable platforms cost, and our screening rankings cover the list-side churn (a record 3,135 SDN additions in 2024 alone).
Frequently asked questions
What exactly did the Supreme Court decide in Learning Resources v. Trump?
On February 20, 2026, the Court held 6–3 (Chief Justice Roberts writing, decided with Trump v. V.O.S. Selections) that IEEPA's power to 'regulate importation' does not include imposing tariffs — the tariff power belongs to Congress, and the major-questions doctrine bars reading it into emergency authority. Both the April 2025 'Liberation Day' reciprocal tariffs and the fentanyl/border IEEPA tariffs were invalidated. CBP stopped collecting at 12:01 a.m. ET on February 24, 2026 (CSMS #67834313).
Do I automatically get my IEEPA tariffs back?
No — and this is the most expensive misunderstanding in trade right now. The Supreme Court explicitly left refund mechanics open. Refunds are importer-initiated through CBP's new CAPE system in the ACE Portal, and CBP has issued no paper checks since February 6, 2026 — you must enroll in ACH refunds first. Whether importers with finally-liquidated, never-protested entries get automatic refunds is on appeal at the Federal Circuit; roughly $175–200B was collected (Penn Wharton estimates ~$175–179B; SCOTUSblog cites over $200B), and CBP had processed about $35.46B in anticipated refunds plus interest by mid-May per its CAPE statistics.
What is the Section 122 tariff and when does it expire?
The administration replaced the IEEPA tariffs with a 10% global surcharge under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 (HTSUS 9903.03.01), effective 12:01 a.m. February 24, 2026 — 10%, not the 15% some sources report, which is the statutory cap. Section 122 is limited to 150 days: it expires July 24, 2026 unless Congress extends it. It's also been ruled invalid by the Court of International Trade (May 7, 2026), but keeps being collected under a Federal Circuit administrative stay issued May 12.
I import consumer goods from Vietnam — what rate am I actually paying in July 2026, and what should I model for August?
Today you're stacking the base HTS rate, the 10% Section 122 surcharge, MPF/HMF, and any product-specific Section 232 duties. For August, model three scenarios: (1) Section 122 lapses July 24 with nothing final in its place — your surcharge drops away; (2) USTR finalizes the proposed Section 301 forced-labor tariffs (10% or 12.5% depending on country) as the durable replacement; (3) both briefly overlap or gap. USTR's stated aim is finalizing 301 remedies before the July 24 sunset — but as of July 3 they are proposals, not law.
Did the ruling bring back de minimis for my sub-$800 shipments?
No. The $800 de minimis exemption ended for all countries on August 29, 2025 under EO 14324, and even though that order cited IEEPA, CBP re-grounded the suspension on its own independent authority via interim final rules published June 24, 2026 — deliberately insulating it from the IEEPA litigation. A statutory repeal (from the July 2025 budget law) takes over on July 1, 2027 regardless. De minimis is gone and staying gone; a Federal Circuit challenge (Detroit Axle, argued June 26, 2026) is the last thread.
What are the three deadlines importers face this month?
July 6, 2026: comments close on USTR's proposed Section 301 forced-labor tariffs covering 60 economies (hearing July 7) — your last formal chance to shape the IEEPA replacement. July 24, 2026: Section 122's 150-day authority expires. Rolling: the 180-day protest deadline after liquidation for IEEPA refund claims that fall outside CAPE — every week of delay permanently forfeits another week of entries.
What does all this churn mean for my compliance software?
Three concrete demands: (1) landed-cost engines must compute the full stack — base HTS + MPF/HMF + Section 232 + Section 301 + the Chapter 99 Section 122 heading (9903.03.01) + AD/CVD — using the rate in force on the entry date, not the calculation date; (2) refund workflow: CAPE is a new ACE module with CSV/API filing, and vendors like Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE shipped support for assembling claims; (3) simulation: with rates changing monthly, tools like Flexport's free tariff simulator and GTM-suite scenario modules moved from nice-to-have to procurement criteria. Our pricing research covers what those capabilities cost.
What we don’t know yet (and refuse to pretend we do)
- Whether finally-liquidated, never-protested entries get automatic refunds — on appeal at the Federal Circuit.
- Whether Congress extends Section 122 past July 24, and whether replacement Section 301 tariffs are final by then.
- The outcome of the Detroit Axle de minimis challenge (argued June 26, 2026) — though CBP’s June re-grounding makes it largely moot.
This page carries an update date because it will need updating. If a development above resolves, we revise the page and change the dateModified — that’s the whole point of a dated explainer.