US Gets 30 More Days to File Reply in Customs Suit at CAFC on Day Planners

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in a June 26 text-only order granted the government's request for 30 more days to file its reply brief in a customs case from importer Blue Sky The Color of Imagination on the customs classification of calendar planners. The reply is now due Aug. 2 (Blue Sky The Color of Imagination v. U.S., Fed. Cir. # 24-1710).

Blue Sky filed its opening brief last month, saying the Court of International Trade was wrong to find that the planners should be classified as diaries and not calendars (see 2405280063). In its decision, the trade court said the court should prefer readings of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule that establish "conformity" across both the English and French translations of the Harmonized System (see 2404100052).

In its opening brief, Blue Sky said the trade court violated the Federal Circuit's precedent in Mead Corp. v. U.S., which included language that described diaries as a record of past events. The importer said its planners are meant to be records of future events and that CIT erred in finding that they are also books "in which you write things that you must remember to do."