Lawyer in SCOTUS case against Trump's tariffs says his clients want a refund

WASHINGTON, DC - DECEMBER 7: (L-R) Allison Riggs, chief counsel of voting rights at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, Kathay Feng, national redistricting director at Common Cause, and Attorney Neal Katyal talk to reporters outside the U.S. Supreme Court after they attended oral arguments in the Moore v. Harper case December 7, 2022 in Washington, DC. The Moore v. Harper case stems from the redrawing of congressional maps by the North Carolina GOP-led state legislature following the 2020 Census. The map was struck down by the state supreme court for partisan gerrymandering that violated the state constitution. Also at issue in the case is the independent state legislature theory, a theory that declares state legislatures should have primary authority for setting rules of federal elections with few checks and balances. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

(L-R) Allison Riggs, chief counsel of voting rights at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice, Kathay Feng, national redistricting director at Common Cause, and Attorney Neal Katyal talk to reporters outside the U.S. Supreme Court after they attended oral arguments in the Moore v. Harper case December 7, 2022 in Washington, DC. Drew Angerer/Getty Images/Getty Images North America hide caption

toggle caption Drew Angerer/Getty Images/Getty Images North America

Neal Katyal, one of the attorneys who argued on behalf of plaintiffs in the U.S. Supreme Court case against Trump's tariffs, told Morning Edition that his clients want a refund from the federal government.

"There's a pretty commonsense principle, which is if you've collected a bunch of money illegally and the court says it's illegal, then you've got to give it back," Katyal said. "It's not a finders keepers rule in this country. We have a system of justice."

Last week, the Supreme Court struck down President Trump's sweeping use of emergency powers to impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The 6-3 ruling is a major setback for the president's economic policy agenda. The next day, Trump announced in a social media post that he would raise global tariffs from 10% to 15% under a different law. While discussing the ruling with NPR's Steve Inkseep, Katyal, who represented U.S. businesses that objected to the tariffs, said that under the U.S. Constitution "it is up to Congress to set the tariffs and not the president acting on his own."

Click the play button in the blue box above to listen to the full conversation.

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