A company with local origins is at the center of a major federal court ruling on tariff refunds.
A federal judge in New York ruled Wednesday that companies that paid tariffs struck down last month by the Supreme Court are due refunds. The company that brought the case was Atmus Filtration Technologies Inc. — Cummins Inc.’s former filtration business.
Atmus, which is headquartered in Nashville, Tenn., filed a lawsuit Feb. 27 seeking to recover around $11 million in duties paid under tariffs that the Trump administration imposed using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), according to a complaint filed in the U.S. Court of International Trade.
The complaint further alleges that the Trump administration continued to charge Atmus tariffs under the IEEPA until Feb. 24 — four days after the Supreme Court ruling.
“Because the Supreme Court categorically ruled that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (“IEEPA”) does not support the power to levy tariffs, this complaint challenges the imposition of any tariff levied under that now invalidated authority,” Atmus states in the complaint.
On Wednesday, Judge Richard Eaton of the U.S. Court of International Trade wrote that “all importers of record’’ were “entitled to benefit’’ from the Supreme Court ruling that struck down sweeping double-digit import taxes President Donald Trump imposed last year under the IEEPA, The Associated Press reported.
The Supreme Court found those tariffs to be unconstitutional under the emergency powers law, including the sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs he levied on nearly every other country, according to wire reports. The majority ruled that the president could not unilaterally set and change tariffs because taxation power clearly belongs to Congress.
In his ruling, Eaton wrote that he alone “will hear cases pertaining to the refund of IEEPA duties.’’ The ruling offers some clarity about the tariff refund process, something the Supreme Court did not even mention in its Feb. 20 decision. Trade lawyer Ryan Majerus, a partner at King & Spalding and a former U.S. trade official, told the AP that he expects the government to appeal or “seek a stay to buy more time for U.S. Customs to comply.”
More than 1,000 companies have filed suit in the U.S. Court of International Trade in efforts to recoup costs from the illegal tariffs, according to wire reports.
The federal government collected more than $130 billion in the now-defunct tariffs through mid-December and could ultimately be on the hook for refunds worth $175 billion, according to calculations by the Penn Wharton Budget Model.
All goods that go through U.S. Customs and Border Protections enter a process called “liquidation,” when the agency issues its final accounting of what is owed, according to wire reports. Once liquidated, importers have 180 days to formally contest the duties. After that window closes, the liquidation is legally final.
The judge ordered customs to stop collecting the IEEPA tariffs the Supreme Court struck down last month on goods going through the liquidation process, according to the AP. And if the goods were past that part of the process, the agency would have to recalculate them without the tariffs.
Now the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency must come up with a way to process the refunds.
“Immediate action is required because the entries for which plaintiff paid IEEPA related tariffs were scheduled to begin liquidating as early as Dec. 15, 2025, and certain of plaintiff’s entries have already liquidated,” Atmus states in the complaint. “Plaintiff seeks to prevent any further liquidations to preserve its right to a full refund.”
Founded in 1958 as the Seymour Filter Co., Atmus became a standalone company in 2023 after Cummins spun off its filtration business through an initial public offering, or IPO. The company designs and manufactures filtration and chemical technology products for diesel and gas-powered equipment sold worldwide, according to its website.
An IPO is when a company’s stocks are sold publicly for the first time. Shares of Atmus Filtration’s stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ATMU on May 26, 2023.
Atmus reported $1.76 billion in sales in 2025, according to the filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
