When Victor Schwartz began his small, New York City-based wine company nearly 40 years ago, he certainly never expected to be facing off against the most powerful person in the world.

But Schwartz and his company VOS Selections are the lead plaintiffs in a legal battle against some of Donald Trump's tariffs, in a case which could  have economic implications across the world.

"I didn't start my company with the idea of like I'm going to sue the president of the United States some day," Schwartz told CBC News. "That was not my goal in life. I just wanted to bring in really nice wine to sell to people that enjoyed them."

Yet Schwartz's company was instrumental in landing a serious legal blow against Trump's tariff policies on Wednesday, when a court ruled the administration had exceeded its right to impose some of those tariffs and had to stop collecting them.

Short-lived victory

The victory, however, was short lived when, a day later, a U.S. federal appeals court granted an emergency motion that would allow the administration to continue the tariffs, at least temporarily.

Schwartz seemed to take the reversal in stride.

"That's just part of the process. It's not like we thought we won the case after that decision [Wednesday] This process, we knew was going to be appealed," he said.

In February, Trump invoked the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China, saying that the illegal flow of immigrants and drugs across the U.S. border amounted to a national emergency and that the three countries needed to do more to stop it.

Last month, Trump also cited the IEEPA when he imposed what he referred to as "reciprocal" tariffs which, he said, were needed to address the U.S. trade balance with other countries. He later suspended those tariffs for 90 days to give countries time to agree to reduce barriers to U.S. exports. 

In its ruling Wednesday, a three-judge panel at the New York-based U.S. Court of International Trade, found that the president had exceeded his authority when he invoked that act.

The ruling came in a pair of lawsuits. One was filed by the nonpartisan Liberty Justice Center on behalf of five small U.S. businesses, including VOS Selections, which import goods from countries targeted by the tariffs. The other lawsuit was filed by 12 U.S. states.

Schwartz says when the first decision came down on Wednesday he wasn't exactly sure what it meant until a lawyer friend explained it to him.

"Then I was pretty elated, and I knew it was a really good thing for everybody, for us, for small businesses across the country, and for world trade, you know?" he said. 

The tariffs are "really just a terrible, terrible impact on what we're trying to do here."

He celebrated in his Manhattan apartment with his wife, and of course a special bottle of wine, a vermentino from France.

His company, which he runs with his daughter Chloe, imports wines from 16 countries and distributes them to neighbouring states. Schwartz says  he runs a family company that works with family operations and family farms in Europe and the U.S.

Asked to join the case

Schwartz says he didn't seek legal redress but found out through a family member that Ilya Somin, a constitutional law professor at George Mason University, was going to be bringing a case against the tariffs. Schwartz says he contacted Somin just to tell him about what was going on in his industry and that Somin was very interested to hear his story.

"Long story short, they asked me to join the case and then eventually asked me to be their lead plaintiff," he said. "That's really how it evolved. I'm a very unintentional plaintiff here. I didn't go out looking for this fight."

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He says the first time he read the legal complaint, with his company's name on it, he laughed "kind of crazily."

"'VOS Selections versus Trump.' It was like a kind of dream," said Schwartz. 

"It was 'Wow, this is amazing.'" 

Meanwhile, Somin, the law professor, said in his blog on Thursday that the appeal court ruling was not an indefinite stay, but a temporary block while a decision is made over whether a more permanent stay, pending appeal, should be implemented.

If the case eventually makes its way to the Supreme Court, Somin told CBC News that his team is "guardedly optimistic" they will prevail.

He says he was not surprised by Wednesday's ruling. Somin says that, during oral arguments a couple of weeks ago, the judges seemed to make it pretty clear that they did not accept the administration's claim that the president "essentially has the power to impose any tariffs he wants on any country at any time for any reason, for as long as he wants, as long if he feels like it."

That, said Somin, is a "massive power grab."

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