Editor’s note: This is an update to a previous story on Schwartz’s victory in the Court of International Trade.
Like generations of Cornell seniors, Victor Owen Schwartz ’80 took Intro to Wines during his final semester on the Hill. But when he was sitting in a packed lecture hall on Friday mornings – learning about grapes, vintages, and terroir from legendary professor Vance Christian ’61, MS ’65 – he could never have suspected that 45 years later, he’d become the global face of a Supreme Court case key to the U.S. wine import industry.
Schwartz’s small, family-run firm, VOS Selections, had been the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit that the Liberty Justice Center filed in the U.S. Court of International Trade in mid-April 2025, challenging the sweeping import tariffs instituted by the Trump Administration.
In late May, a three-judge panel ruled unanimously in favor of the plaintiffs—deciding that the tariffs had exceeded the scope of the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act, under which the administration had instituted them. The case went to the U.S. Court of Appeals—which again ruled for the plaintiffs, in a 7-4 vote.
The Supreme Court then fast-tracked it, with oral arguments held in November. In late February 2026, the decision came down: 6-3 in favor of VOS Selections and its fellow plaintiffs.
For the Arts & Sciences alum—a former econ major who’s married to a fellow Cornellian, Cushla Naegele ’80—the media attention has been dizzying and unrelenting.
But amid the tumult, Schwartz was gracious enough to make time to speak with Cornellians. The following has been condensed from conversations following both the Court of International Trade and Supreme Court decisions.
Read the interview on the Cornellians website.
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