CIT Ends the Automatic Stay for New IEEPA Refund Cases

What Administrative Order 26-01 does

Today, the Court of International Trade rescinded the automatic-stay procedure for newly filed IEEPA tariff cases. Cases filed after July 13 will no longer be stayed at commencement merely because they involve IEEPA refund claims.

This removes a procedural rule that had placed new cases into a holding pattern before an assigned judge took any case-specific action.

What it does not do

The order does not automatically lift stays already entered under Administrative Order 25-02. Those cases remain stayed until the assigned judge lifts the stay or otherwise modifies it.

That distinction is important. It would be inaccurate to say that the CIT "unstayed all IEEPA cases." The court instead ended the automatic stay prospectively and left existing stays to the assigned judges.

Why the change matters

New importer actions can now proceed without the automatic administrative pause. That does not guarantee immediate relief, but it makes a newly filed case a live litigation vehicle rather than a docketed placeholder.

The timing is especially significant for importers with entries CAPE cannot reach. The court and CBP are now developing plaintiff-specific procedures for those entries, and access to that procedure may depend on having an active case.

THE BOTTOM LINE: The CIT has made new IEEPA filings procedurally more consequential. Existing cases may still be stayed, but new cases are no longer automatically warehoused.

We can determine whether your CAPE-ineligible entries justify a new CIT action and can handle the filing and refund process under a single engagement.