Good morning.
Saturday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 39. Sunrise is 6:32 and sunset is 5:43 for 11 hours 11 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 90.5 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1844, a gun explodes on board the steam warship USS Princeton during a pleasure cruise down the Potomac River, killing six, including Secretary of State Abel Upshur. President John Tyler, who is also on board, is not injured from the blast.
On February 20, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a decision in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, finding unlawful the Trump Administration’s stated basis for the imposition of tariffs. See Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, 607 U.S. _ (2026). Understandably, Wisconsin companies are seeking refunds for unlawfully imposed tariffs:
Ten Wisconsin-based companies — including Kohl’s, Milwaukee Tool and Ashley Furniture — had sued the Trump administration over its tariff policy before the U.S. Supreme Court struck it down, according to court documents.
They are seeking refunds for the tariff duties. Some also accuse the import taxes of violating the U.S. Constitution.
President Donald Trump has imposed sweeping tariffs on international trade since his return to office, using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to justify the move. But, the 10 companies suing his administration claim he had no jurisdiction to do so. In December, some Wisconsin companies started fighting the policy in court, hoping the litigation could help their chances of receiving compensation for paid tariffs.
[…]The Wisconsin companies suing range in size, and include well known names like Kohl’s, Milwaukee Tool, Ashley Furniture and Duluth Holdings. Others include the HellermannTyton Corporation, Waukesha Bearings Corporation, Weyco Group Inc., Lamplight Farms and Colony Brands.
Weyco Group was one of the first of the companies to sue. Their suit requested that the U.S. Court of International Trade “declare the president’s unprecedented power grab illegal.”
The footwear company now wants an “immediate refund” with interest, according to the document.
Milwaukee Tool filed its suit last month. The complaint argues the imposed tariffs had “little relation” to the “purported national emergency” Trump used to justify them.
See Steph Conquest-Ware, Kohl’s and Milwaukee Tool, other Wisconsin companies sue Trump for tariff refunds (‘The companies began filing in December before the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision ruling the tariffs unconstitutional’), Wisconsin Public Radio, February 27, 2026.
Tariffs are passed along from importers to consumers. See Douglas Baird, Who’s Really Paying for the Trump Administration’s Tariffs?, Univ. of Chi. News (Feb. 2026) and Scott Lincicome and Nathan Miller, The White House Still Can’t Grasp That Americans Pay US Tariffs, Cato at Liberty (Feb. 19, 2026): “In short, seven independent research teams have now examined the “who’s paying” question and have reached essentially the same answer: We are. The White House can attack the messengers, but it can’t change the data—and at this point, the data speaks for itself.”
American companies should be refunded promptly. They won’t be refunded promptly, of course, but they should be.
The surprising science of squeaky sneakers: