# Clark Packard: Trump Has Many Options if the Supreme Court Strikes Down Tariffs 

“The administration may have to refund the roughly $100 billion in taxes that it has collected so far,” but emphasizes that “that will not mean that the country’s long national nightmare will have come to an end.”

December 5, 2025 • News Releases 

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to announce a decision soon in Learning Resources v. Trump, which will decide whether the tariffs that the second Trump administration has imposed under the IEEPA pass statutory and constitutional muster.

In a new [op-ed](https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/12/05/trump-tariffs-supreme-court-united-states/?utm_content=gifting&tpcc=gifting_article&gifting_article=dHJ1bXAtdGFyaWZmcy1zdXByZW1lLWNvdXJ0LXVuaXRlZC1zdGF0ZXM=&pid=PNIDb2Q0Gt5iweo) for Foreign Policy, [Clark Packard](https://www.cato.org/people/clark-packard), a research fellow at the Cato Institute, warns “the consequences will be significant: The administration may have to refund the roughly $100 billion in taxes that it has collected so far,” but emphasizes that “that will not mean that the country’s long national nightmare will have come to an end.”

**Related Work:**

- [IEEPA Tariffs Are Not Essential to the President’s Ability to Strike Trade Deals](https://www.cato.org/blog/ieepa-tariffs-are-not-essential-presidents-ability-strike-trade-deals)
- [IEEPA Tariffs: Not an Essential Foreign Policy Tool](https://www.cato.org/blog/ieepa-tariffs-not-essential-foreign-policy-tool)

To speak to Clark Packard, please feel free to email Cato PR at [pr@​cato.​org](mailto:pr@cato.org).

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