Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

DOJ filed notices of appeal at the Federal Circuit arguing the trade court cannot order refunds to importers who never sued, the CASA argument it had flagged in March. At a June 9 hearing CBP's trade chief Susan Thomas testified that CAPE had accepted claims covering about $90 billion of the $166 billion collected and transmitted about $23 billion to Treasury, having processed refunds on nearly 8.5 million entries in six weeks. Entries liquidated more than 80 days earlier, worth perhaps $30 billion, remained contested.

In Oregon v. United States and Burlap and Barrel v. United States the Court of International Trade held Proclamation 11012 invalid because trade and current-account deficits are not the balance-of-payments deficits Section 122 was written for. Relief was limited to the plaintiffs, the State of Washington, Burlap and Barrel and toymaker Basic Fun, and on May 12 the Federal Circuit issued an administrative stay, so collection of the 10% surcharge continued while the appeal proceeded.

The full Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit agreed that IEEPA's grant of authority to regulate imports does not authorize tariffs that are unbounded in scope, amount and duration, while vacating the trade court's nationwide injunction for reconsideration in light of the Supreme Court's CASA decision on universal relief. The court stayed its mandate until October 14 so the government could seek Supreme Court review, and the tariffs stayed in force.

The Federal Circuit granted the government's motion for a stay pending appeal. It scheduled expedited oral argument on the merits for July 31, 2025.