Tariff WatchBetween February 2025 and February 2026 a series of actions under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act imposed additional duties on goods of Canada, Mexico and China, and then a country-wide reciprocal rate ladder reaching most of the world. On 20 February 2026 the Supreme Court held that the statute does not authorize tariffs. Collection ceased for entries made on or after 24 February 2026.
What the actions were
Country actions, then a reciprocal ladder.
The International Emergency Economic Powers Act, 50 U.S.C. 1701 and following, allows the President to regulate a range of international transactions after declaring a national emergency with respect to an unusual and extraordinary threat originating substantially outside the United States. It had not previously been used to impose tariffs.
The actions were reported under heading group 9903.01 and, for the reciprocal schedule that replaced the original ladder in August 2025, under 9903.02. Rates ran from ten percent to forty-one percent by country. The schedule reached most trading partners rather than an enumerated list of goods.
The decision
Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, decided 20 February 2026.
In Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, No. 24-1287, decided 20 February 2026 by six votes to three, the Supreme Court held that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize the imposition of tariffs. Customs and Border Protection deactivated the affected headings in ACE by CSMS 67834313, and the duties stopped being collected for entries made on or after 24 February 2026.
The tariff schedule itself did not follow. Revision 17 still prints heading 9903.01.01 imposing an additional twenty-five percent on products of Mexico, and still prints the reciprocal rate ladder at 9903.01.43 through 9903.01.76, months after the authority for both was held invalid. A heading in the schedule is not evidence that a duty is being collected.
Entries made while it ran
The duties were collected. Whether they are recoverable is a separate question.
Duties collected under an authority later held invalid were collected without authority, which is a different position from duties collected under an action that has since expired on its own terms. Whether a particular importer can recover turns on the posture of each entry, on protest and post-summary-correction deadlines, and on the scope of the relief the courts have actually ordered.
The historical schedule remains on the map as the second view, because entries made before 24 February 2026 were charged under it and a rate for a past date has to resolve against the layers that were in force on that date.
Related
Elsewhere on this site.