CBP's Reversal on Finally Liquidated Entries: When the CAPE Portal Will Not Refund Your IEEPA Tariffs

If you are counting on an IEEPA tariff refund, a change Customs and Border Protection made in late May could decide whether you get paid automatically or have to go to court for it. The Supreme Court struck down the IEEPA tariffs on February 20, 2026, and CBP has been returning money through an automated portal called CAPE ever since. For a large category of older entries, CBP now says that portal will not pay you without a court order. Here is what changed, the one date on each of your entries that decides your path, and what to do this week.

What changed: CBP's new position on finally liquidated entries

After the Supreme Court ruled the IEEPA tariffs illegal, CBP built CAPE, short for Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries, to refund the duties. It opened on April 20, 2026, and it has been refunding those duties, with interest.

In a court filing on May 29, 2026, CBP took a narrower position than it had before. For entries that are "finally liquidated," CBP said it has no authority to refund the money through the portal without a court order specific to that importer. In plain terms, the automatic path does not reach these entries, and the importer has to win a case to recover.

To understand who that hits, you need to understand liquidation.

What "finally liquidated" actually means

Liquidation is CBP's final accounting of what you owed on an import entry. It is the moment the government closes its books on that shipment. After an entry liquidates, you have 180 days to file a protest, which is a formal challenge under 19 U.S.C. § 1514 asking CBP to correct the entry. A timely protest keeps the entry open and preserves your rights. If 180 days pass with no protest, the entry becomes "finally liquidated," which means it is closed and CBP treats its decision as final.

CBP's new position is about that closed category. Once an entry is finally liquidated, CBP says it cannot reopen it and pay you through the portal. It needs a court to order it.

Why the CAPE portal does not cover every entry

Here is the gap that catches importers. CAPE in its current phase picks up two kinds of entries automatically: entries that have not liquidated yet, and entries that liquidated within roughly the last 80 days. That 80-day window is an operational cutoff built into the portal. It is not the same as the 180-day legal deadline to protest.

So there is a zone, from about 80 days after liquidation to 180 days after liquidation, where the portal will not automatically grab your entry, but your legal right to protect it is still open. If you do nothing during that zone, the entry can slide into final liquidation, and then you are in the category CBP says it will not pay administratively. The money does not vanish on paper, but the easy route to it does.

This is why we map entries to three parallel pathways rather than relying on the portal alone. The first pathway is the CAPE declaration for entries the portal can reach. The second is a CBP protest for entries still inside the 180-day window. The third is litigation at the Court of International Trade for entries that are already final. The pathways are not interchangeable, and the right one depends entirely on where each entry sits in time. We walk through how these fit together in [How You Recover Your IEEPA Tariff Refund](/tariff-news/how-you-recover-your-ieepa-tariff-refund).

The importer-specific court order: how it actually works

For finally liquidated entries, the recovery route is a lawsuit at the Court of International Trade, the federal court that handles customs and trade disputes. The usual basis is 28 U.S.C. § 1581(i), the court's residual jurisdiction, which covers refund claims like these. If you protested and CBP denied the protest, there is a related route under § 1581(a).

Two things matter most. First, timing. A suit under the court's residual jurisdiction has to be filed within two years of when the claim accrues, under 28 U.S.C. § 2636(i). That two-year clock is the outer deadline, and it is already running. Second, the remedy. When you win, the court orders CBP to reliquidate the entries, which means to redo the accounting without the IEEPA duties, and to refund what you overpaid with interest under 19 U.S.C. § 1505(c). CBP then removes the IEEPA duty lines in its system and disburses the money.

This is a real federal case, measured in months, not the days or weeks of a portal refund. That is the cost CBP's position shifts onto importers with older entries. It is also the reason we have argued from the start that filing your own action is the strongest position, a point we made in [The Atmus Order: Why Importers Should Still File Actions](/tariff-news/the-atmus-order-why-importers-should-still-file-actions).

The appeal: what the Federal Circuit could do

There is a larger fight happening above all of this. Judge Richard Eaton at the Court of International Trade ordered CBP to refund every importer who paid IEEPA duties, including importers who never filed a lawsuit and including finally liquidated entries. The government has appealed that order to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and is asking the court to pause it for everyone except the named plaintiffs while the appeal proceeds.

The legal question is whether a single court can order relief that broad. The government relies on a 2025 Supreme Court decision, Trump v. CASA, which limited the power of courts to issue nationwide, or "universal," relief. Judge Eaton's answer is that the Court of International Trade is different, because Congress gave it nationwide jurisdiction by statute. That dispute is the heart of the appeal, and it has a tell. The Federal Circuit already vacated the Court of International Trade's universal injunction in this same litigation back in August 2025, on the same CASA grounds, and sent it back to be narrowed. That history makes a clean win for automatic, universal refunds the least likely outcome, and a narrowing or a return to the trade court the more likely one.

A hearing is set for June 9, 2026, and the court ordered the CBP Commissioner to appear in person. The practical takeaway is to plan for a split world. Recent and unliquidated entries are likely to keep getting paid through the portal. Finally liquidated entries are the contested category, and they should not be treated as money in the bank until the courts settle the scope.

What importers should do this week

1. Pull the liquidation date for every entry that carried IEEPA duties. This is the single fact that determines your pathway.
2. File protests where the 180-day window is still open, especially any entries the portal has not already picked up. This keeps the entry from going final.
3. Get finally liquidated entries evaluated for a Court of International Trade filing, and calendar the two-year deadline so it does not pass quietly.
4. Do not assume the portal is handling everything. Confirm which of your entries CAPE actually accepted.
5. Watch the June 9 hearing and the Federal Circuit's decision on the pause, because it will tell you how wide the automatic path stays.

If you are not certain which category your entries fall into, that is the work to do before a deadline makes the decision for you.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Tariff outcomes depend on the specific facts of your entries and on litigation that is still developing. Sources include the Supreme Court decision in Trump v. V.O.S. Selections and Learning Resources v. Trump (No. 24-1287, Feb. 20, 2026); CBP filings before the U.S. Court of International Trade in Euro-Notions Florida v. United States (No. 25-00595) and V.O.S. Selections v. United States (No. 25-00066); Trump v. CASA, Inc., 606 U.S. 831 (2025); the Federal Circuit's decision in V.O.S. Selections v. Trump (No. 25-1812, Aug. 29, 2025); 19 U.S.C. §§ 1514 and 1505(c); and 28 U.S.C. §§ 1581 and 2636(i). Court filing language as reported by Sheppard Mullin and Davis Wright Tremaine, June 2, 2026. Consult a qualified trade attorney before relying on any of the foregoing for a specific entry.