One week after the Supreme Court struck down many of President Trump’s tariffs, his administration moved late Friday to try to slow down a wave of new requests for refunds, arguing that the government needed months of additional time to evaluate its next steps.
The Justice Department filed its request in a lower court just hours after President Trump signaled on social media that he opposed refunding that money, which totals more than $100 billion. Instead, he suggested that he could still try to persuade the nation’s justices to reconsider their ruling against him.
In its late-night filing, lawyers for the Justice Department asked one of the courts considering the matter to wait as long as about four months before taking a procedural step to start refund proceedings. The pause would “allow the political branches an opportunity to consider options,” the government said.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Trump appeared to hint at one of the possible options. In a defiant post on social media, he mused: “Is a Rehearing or Readjudication of this case possible???”
It is almost unheard-of, but not impossible, for the Supreme Court to agree to rehear a decision. It has not happened in decades, and a majority of justices would have to agree — a highly unlikely outcome given the 6-to-3 vote against his tariffs.
Still, such a request could buy the Trump administration more time to figure out its approach to refunds. By requesting a rehearing, the administration would presumably delay the Supreme Court from formally transmitting its original decision back to the lower courts, a routine process that usually occurs weeks after the justices announce an opinion.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
The request from the Justice Department drew sharp condemnation from the Liberty Justice Center, which represented a set of small-business plaintiffs in the case that reached the Supreme Court. This week, the legal group asked judges to start taking the procedural steps that would allow for them to press their refund claims.
“These were illegal tariffs. American businesses paid money the government had no authority to collect,” Sara Albrecht, the chairman of the Liberty Justice Center, said in a statement. “That money does not belong to Washington. It belongs to the American people who earned it.”
At stake is roughly $100 billion collected through the emergency tariffs that Mr. Trump first imposed last spring. If the administration is required to return that revenue, it will be a big payday for businesses that bore the brunt of the tariffs but will deliver a fiscal blow to the federal government and its finances.
The Trump administration initially told federal judges that it would “issue refunds as directed by the court,” plus interest, if the courts ultimately found the tariffs to be illegal. But the White House has struck a far less accommodating tone since the Supreme Court ruling. Mr. Trump now claims that the process to sort out tariffs may take as long as five years.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Mr. Trump said on Friday, “that Countries and Companies that took advantage of us for decades, receiving Billions and Billions of Dollars that they should not have been allowed to receive, would now be entitled to an undeserved ‘windfall,’ the likes of which the World has never seen before, as a result of this highly disappointing, to say the least, ruling.”
Tariffs are taxes paid by U.S. companies and consumers as they import goods. Many large companies, including FedEx and Costco, have cited the impact to their businesses from Mr. Trump’s tariffs as they have flooded federal courts recently with new lawsuits seeking refunds.
Ann E. Marimow contributed reporting.
Tony Romm is a reporter covering economic policy and the Trump administration for The Times, based in Washington.
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