The Supreme Court dealt a major blow to President Donald Trump’s core economic agenda Friday, ruling that he exceeded his executive authority by implementing his sweeping global tariffs without congressional approval.
The decision, which has been applauded by legal scholars, politicians, trade organizations and businesses, is a special cause for celebration at Learning Resources, a family-owned educational toy company in Vernon Hills, which brought the case challenging Trump’s tariffs.
Learning Resources, whose name is forever attached to a consequential Supreme Court decision, shared the victory Friday with small businesses everywhere, which, along with consumers, bore the brunt of the tariff costs.
“It’s not really just about us. It’s about all the businesses around the world that have been impacted and the consumers that have been hit by this too,” said Stephen Woldenberg, senior vice president of sales at Learning Resources.
Trump cancels tariff threat over Greenland, says NATO agreed to ‘framework’ of future Arctic deal
A pillar of his economic policy, Trump set what he called reciprocal tariffs on a long list of countries in April 2025 to address trade deficits that he declared a national emergency. Those came after he imposed duties on Canada, China and Mexico, ostensibly to address a drug trafficking emergency.
The 6-3 decision struck down the tariffs levied by the president through the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, a novel use of a 1977 statute, which the Supreme Court found did not apply.
“It’s a very significant ruling in that it strikes down the legality of most of Trump’s tariffs, which were based on this emergency powers statute,” Curtis Bradley, a University of Chicago law professor and an expert on executive authority, said Friday. “Hundreds of billions of dollars were at stake, if not more.”
In a news conference Friday, Trump said he was “deeply disappointed” by the Supreme Court decision and vowed to find an alternative way to continue his economic policy, announcing he will use a different section of trade law to immediately impose 10% tariffs on countries around the world.
Argentina and US sign a major trade deal to slash tariffs and boost a political alliance
Trump also called the people that brought the lawsuit “major sleazebags.”
On April 22, Learning Resources filed a lawsuit against Trump in a District of Columbia federal court, alleging the president exceeded his executive authority in implementing the tariffs by the novel use of the IEEPA statute. Learning Resources CEO Rick Woldenberg, an attorney himself, made the decision to sue the most powerful person in the world, going where larger corporations apparently feared to tread.
The district court ruled in favor of Learning Resources on May 29 and the government filed a notice of appeal the following day. In a separate lawsuit, the Court of International Trade found in favor of several other small businesses, including VOS Selections, a New York wine importer, declaring the tariffs illegal and issuing a permanent injunction on May 28.
The Supreme Court decision Friday upheld the lower court decisions and put the existing reciprocal tariffs in limbo.
The Treasury has collected more than $133 billion from the import taxes the president has imposed under the emergency powers law, federal data from December shows. Trump put the total in the “hundreds of billions” during his news conference Friday.
Many companies, including the big-box warehouse chain Costco, have already lined up in court to demand refunds.
“He was trying to impose the unlimited worldwide tariffs at his discretion under this emergency statute, and that is clearly now off the table, and presumably, the companies who paid the tariffs under this emergency statute will now have claims they can file for refunds since they were imposed in violation of the law,” Bradley said.
It’s the first major piece of Trump’s broad agenda to come squarely before the nation’s highest court, which he helped shape with the appointments of three conservative jurists in his first term.
In Friday’s 6-3 decision, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, joined by Trump appointees Amy Coney Barrett and Neil Gorsuch, along with the three liberal justices. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Trump appointee Brett Kavanaugh dissented.
Trump pulled no punches regarding the decision by two of his handpicked justices to side with the majority and strike down the tariffs.
“I think their decision was terrible,” Trump said. “I think it’s an embarrassment to their families.”
A number of Illinois politicians have a difference of opinion with Trump, praising the decision.
U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider, whose north suburban district includes the Vernon Hills headquarters of Learning Resources, announced Friday he is planning to bring the company’s CEO to Trump’s scheduled State of the Union address Tuesday.
“Rick Woldenberg is just one of thousands of American business owners whose companies, small and large, have been severely affected by President Trump’s illegal, chaotic, and harmful tariffs over the past year,” Schneider said in a news release, adding that Woldenberg’s presence at the State of the Union “will send a clear message” to the Trump administration.
Legal scholar Bradley, whose work was actually cited in the dissent, said the majority opinion got it right in ruling the IEEPA statute did not give presidential authority to implement tariffs without congressional approval.
More broadly, he was encouraged by the Supreme Court’s willingness to stand against the president and assert a separation of powers, something that has come under question during Trump’s second term
“The Supreme Court has been criticized in the last six months in particular for not striking down various Trump initiatives,” Bradley said. “Sometimes the courts have to push back against the president, and this is an example of them doing that, and in a major case involving very large amounts of money and a core part of Trump’s approach to foreign policy, since he seems to threaten tariffs or impose them every week or so.”
While it is unclear how businesses will claw back the hundreds of billions of dollars they were illegally charged under Trump’s tariffs, U.S. firms and consumers have paid the price, according to economists.
A New York Fed study released last week showed that about 90% of the cost of tariffs last year were borne by U.S. companies and consumers.
On Friday, Gov. JB Pritzker sent a demand letter and an invoice to Trump asking for the return of $8.6 billion “he stole from Illinois families” through the illegal tariffs.
“Your tariff taxes wreaked havoc on farmers, enraged our allies, and sent grocery prices through the roof,” Pritzker said in the letter, forwarded to the Tribune by his campaign staff. “This morning, your hand-picked Supreme Court Justices notified you that they are also unconstitutional.”
The attached invoice Pritzker sent seeks $1,700 per Illinois family to cover the tariff costs.
Learning Resources and its sister company, hand2mind, which have 500 employees and a 1.1 million-square-foot warehouse at their Vernon Hills headquarters, said in the lawsuit that the president’s tariffs were both unconstitutional and an “existential threat” to their businesses.
The century-old family business makes educational toys such as the Pretend & Play Cash Register and Kanoodle, and outsources more than half of its manufacturing to China. The company said Trump’s tariffs added $12 million to its production expenses in 2025.
The company raised prices across its product lines and cut expenses out of its marketing budget to absorb some of the tariff costs, but did not implement any layoffs, Stephen Woldenberg said.
On Friday, Woldenberg said he was grateful for the Supreme Court’s decision — and the role his toy company played in bringing a ruling of significant economic and political consequence.
“One of the beautiful things about our country is a small business like us …. can raise a suit like this and get to the highest court,” Woldenberg said. “It gives me great faith in our system that we can find a way to have our voice heard and have our day in court.”
Chicago Tribune reporter Olivia Olander and the Associated Press contributed.
