3/17/26 — SCOTUS Mandate Likely to Issue in the Near Future

The Department of Justice has allowed the March 17, 2026 deadline under Supreme Court Rule 44 to pass without filing a petition for rehearing in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump. This means the Supreme Court's landmark decision striking down the IEEPA tariffs will stand without further challenge at the highest court.

With judgment entered on February 20, 2026, and no rehearing petition filed by the Rule 44 deadline, the default mandate date is 32 days after judgment—March 24, 2026—unless the Court directs issuance "forthwith" or otherwise alters that schedule.

When the mandate issues, it formally returns jurisdiction to the lower courts and sets the legal machinery in motion for enforcing the Court's ruling. It may also heighten uncertainty around the unresolved question of when IEEPA tariffs become "protestable" and whether such protestability could foreclose the option of immediate litigation under the court's residual jurisdictional clause at 28 U.S.C. section 1581(i).

For this reason, many law firms have been urging clients to consider filing litigation sooner rather than later.