Claims system launches months after supreme court ruled Trump had no legal authority to impose tariffs
The Trump administration has begun accepting applications from businesses seeking refunds for more than $166bn in tariffs, months after the supreme court ruled that the president had no legal authority to impose them.
The administration launched on Monday the digital claims system, named Cape, which they said in court filings could handle about 63% of affected import filings, with the remainder to follow.
Writing for the majority in February, Chief Justice John Roberts said the 1977 emergency statute Trump had invoked provided no such sweeping authority to implement the tariffs. Two of the president’s own appointees, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, joined the majority. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh were the dissenters.
If only the courts could actually respond to major governmental overreach in a timely manner the general public wouldn’t have $166B stolen from them. They somehow always defer to just letting the administration do the thing even when it’s a major change and doing so causes injury to regular people who cannot recoup it.
This could have been quashed in May 2025 when the lower courts ruled against an obviously unconstitutional usurpation of the power to lay tariffs. Instead they stayed the ruling at each appeal and waited until the Supreme Court found the exact same result as every lower court in December. And that was them moving quickly.
Could have also not voted for the clown and that would have saved the world and the us a lot of bother.