The Supreme Court said the tariffs were illegal. Now the checks have to go out.
In February, the court ruled 6-3 that the president went too far using IEEPA to tax imports. IEEPA is a law meant for crises - not trade fights.
A month later, a federal trade judge said the checks need to start going out.
Judge Richard Eaton said on March 4 that nearly every company that paid these tariffs should get its money back - with interest.
The total sits around $133 billion. And the interest clock is running at about $650 million per month, so every week of delay adds to the bill.
More than 2,000 companies have filed claims. FedEx says it's owed close to $1 billion.
Costco is getting hit from the other side too - shoppers are filing class-action suits asking the store to pass the refunds down to them.
L'Oreal, Dyson, and Nissan are in line too. The thread: they all paid billions in tariffs that the top court now says were never legal.
Getting the money back could take months or years. Congress may try to pass new laws to fill the gap.
For now, the bill is due - and it grows by more than half a billion dollars every month.
