'Makes you so proud to be an American,' says New York wine importer who sued over tariffs and won
Victor Schwartz says he is proud to be an American today.
The owner of a small wine importing business based in New York, Schwartz sued the Trump administration nearly a year ago to challenge President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled in his favor, rebuking the signature policy of the most powerful man in the country and siding with a group of small business owners, including Schwartz.
"It just makes you so proud to be an American and to know that our system functions like this," Schwartz told ABC News. "That this very small business in New York City can challenge something because it is just so wrong ... that we can go to the biggest, the highest court in the land, and because we were right, we can win."
"Think about it. You don't see that in many countries these days," he added. "It's an amazing thing."
Schwartz said he learned about the decision while on a video call with the other small business owners who sued over the tariffs. He described the feeling when he learned they had won as an "out-of-body kind of experience."
"If I could pull a metaphor from the Olympics that we're all watching now, I imagine it's like winning a gold medal," he said.
Though Schwartz was elated to learn of the decision, he was skeptical that he would feel the immediate impact of the decision, especially if Trump attempts to use other mechanisms to impose tariffs.
"There's too many unknowns about what the next steps are. There will be next steps," Schwartz said. "Certainly, the administration is going to impose new tariffs. I'm thinking we'll have to see what that looks like."
Following the ruling Friday, Trump said he would impose his global tariffs a different way, lambasting the court's decision as "deeply disappointing."
"We're going forward," Trump told reporters in the White House briefing room.
Schwartz was also pessimistic about the possibility of getting refunded some of the six-figure cost from the tariffs, saying he expects the Trump administration to drag their feet through the process.
"Of course, we want our money back, and there's no reason they can't get it back. I think a lot of that is excuses on the part of the administration," Schwartz said.
He claims he couldn’t pass the tariffs on to his customers because of the fixed prices in the regulated wine marketplace.
When pressed about whether the government would refund money taken in from tariffs that have been struck down, Trump seemed to indicate Friday he would wait for a court battle to determine whether or not he has to.
"I guess it has to get litigated for the next two years," Trump said.
Though he doesn’t expect an immediate refund, Schwartz said he is thrilled about the possibility of resuming business without tariffs.
"I would love to get some of it back, but most importantly is to be able to go forward without tariffs. That would be incredible. That would really be something if we could start doing our business in the normal way," he said.
Overall, Schwartz said the tariffs have had an “unimaginable” effect on his business and bottom line. As an importer, he said he has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for the tariffs, while the regulated nature of the wine business has made it difficult to adjust prices to recoup some of that money.
"That's just tied up gone. Can you imagine getting a tax bill out of the blue for that much money, because that's what happened to us. It's unimaginable," he said.
Another business owner, Rick Woldenberg, the CEO of Illinois toymaker Learning Resources, said he felt "vindicated" after the ruling Friday and said the impact to the business had been "quite significant."
Woldenberg and his company were also among the plaintiffs and legal challengers to Trump's tariffs that succeeded at the high court.
"Obviously, we contended this was an unlawful tax and the Supreme Court agreed with the arguments we put forward in our complaint on April 22nd," Woldenberg said.
"Our priorities changed overnight," he added. "We dramatically cut our spending to prepare to survive what we couldn't really anticipate. So we were saving our acorns for winter."
Woldenberg said he felt "optimistic" that he would be refunded the money with interest, but said he was "sure there'll be a legal process."
Schwartz added that he is especially frustrated by Trump’s tariff policy because his campaign focused so much on helping small businesses.
"I would like to think that this business-oriented administration would be more sensitive to the needs of businesses," he said.
ABC News' Patty See contributed to this report.
