How Our Tariff Case Came About

The Wall Street Journal, CBC, and Time published good articles on the story behind the case filed by the Liberty Justice Center and myself.

Since  our win in the tariff case before the US Court of International Trade a couple days ago, there have been several informative media articles about the history of the case, and how the Liberty Justice Center and I decided to undertake it, and found our clients. In this post, I compile links to what I think are the most interesting ones.

Ruth Simon and James Fanelli of the Wall Street Journal have an article  entitled "How a Small Wine Importer Took On Trump's Tariffs" (paywalled) It tells the story of our lead plaintiff Victor Schwartz of VOS Selections. Also, it describes how the idea for the lawsuit originated with a post right here on the Volokh Conspiracy blog, which led Jeff Schwab of the Liberty Justice Center to reach out to me in hopes of pursuing the issue. We eventually agreed I would put up another post seeking potential clients for the case, which is how we found Victor and other potential clients. As the article describes we deliberately sought small businesses that directly import products from countries subject to the "Liberation Day" tariffs.

Mark Gollom  tells the same story in a bit less detail in an article for the Canadian CBC news site. Unlike the Wall Street Journal article, this one isn't paywalled!

Finally, Callum Sutherland of Time has an article profiling all five of our clients: VOS Selections, FishUSA, Microkits, Terry Precision Cycling, and Genova Pipe. Between them, they represent a a wide range of industries, from toys to wine to cycling apparel for women; a veritable cross-section of the many small businesses imperiled by Trump's trade war. We are proud to represent them!

Comments

[Stupid Government Tricks]

Milk that 15 minutes!

I can't wait for the DVD and its bonus features, the deleted scenes and the making of featurette.

[Supremacy Claus]

Congratulations to Ilya. He is a hit with the anti-Trump media, desperate for good news these days. He is still not mentioning the stay of this victory in less than 24 hours by the Federal District Appeals Court. It has just been widened.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/29/business/appeals-court-pauses-trump-tariff-ruling

[Stupid Government Tricks]

Eh, the appeal was about as close to automatic as could be expected. It has little to do with the substance. Calling the appeal a victory is like a boxer calling his 10 second count a victory.

[Drewski]

He did write an article on the stay, which was routine, it hasn't been widened, and you got the name of the relevant court wrong. On the plus side, this is the most coherent post I've seen you make. I can tell what you're trying to say! It's all wrong, but it's recognizable as an effort at communication.

[Supremacy Claus]

Thank you for being the only person stupid enough to read my comments.

[Chris Williams]

Funny how the most free market, pro-business outcome came about in trying to fight a Republican president.

[Supremacy Claus]

Do you have any criticism of the Chinese Commie Party, or just of the Trump administration?

[M L]

Not really free market and pro-business as much as it is pro-globalism.

[Foxwhelp]

It's pro-free trade, which is an entirely different thing. Moreover, it's an enormous victory for everyone to desires small government. The fact that the trumpist crowd can't see that is just evidence that they're idiots. It doesn't really matter how you characterize tariffs -- as a tax, trade regulation, whatever. The inescapable fact is that it's government placing restrictions on market transactions between willing participants and it should be patently obvious, but apparently isn't to you bozos, that if imposing such restrictions can be done on the decision of a single man, they'll be a lot easier to impose than if they require a majority of both houses of Congress. To support the position that the president, standing alone, has such authority is to support a massive increase in government power over people and a massive reduction in individual freedom.

[Stupid Government Tricks]

Politics is full of statists. The only exceptions I know of now are Rand Paul and Massie, and I have no idea how they'd behave if the rest of Congress were like them.

The only time statists care about the size of government is when they are its victims, and their only solution is to put themselves back in power.

[M L]

The free market is a government construct. To have a global or semi-global common market is to have a global or semi-global common government, at some level. So in the abstract, I don't agree that this is good for small government.

I am sympathetic to the idea of restricting executive power on tariffs. On the other hand, trade policy is foreign policy, and trade relations and foreign relations. It has long been the case, for as long as people have been theorizing about free markets, that trade policies like this are subject to the continual fluctuations of foreign relationships. As Adam Smith wrote: "To judge whether such retaliations are likely to produce such an effect, does not, perhaps, belong so much to the science of a legislator, whose deliberations ought to be governed by general principles, which are always the same, as to the skill of that insidious and crafty animal vulgarly called a statesman or politician, whose councils are directed by the momentary fluctuations of affairs."

As to the particular legal issues, I haven't looked into it but I'm skeptical. Without a doubt, to have the decision rest in the hands of judges is far worse than having it in the hands of the executive. Unfortunately most laws aren't all that clear and leave wide open doors for judicial activism. On the other hand, if Congress has truly restricted the executive in this area, that's a different story. But that seems at odds with historical practice.

[Stupid Government Tricks]

He said "most", and compared to everything else, it is.

[M L]

Again, it's better described as pro-globalist ideology than pro-markets or business, in my opinion.

The situation of taxing and regulating domestic industry and jobs to death, while allowing free imports from countries with communism, slave labor, no environmental regulations, etc. is simply absurd and it is national suicide. Not much freedom in that.

[David Nieporent]

Not really free market and pro-business as much as it is pro-globalism.

Same thing.

[Incunabulum]

Your win didn't last 24 hours though.