Vernon Hills, Illinois toy company played pivotal role in Supreme Court ruling striking down Trump tariffs

A family-owned toy company in north suburban Vernon Hills played a pivotal role in the surprise Supreme Court ruling Friday that struck down most of President Trump's tariffs.

Educational toy company Learning Resources warned the tariffs could be a "death sentence" for many small businesses across the country. They said their important duties on toys jumped from $2 million to $14 million last year.

Now the highest court in America has ruled Mr. Trump did not have the power to impose the tariffs.

"We didn't think that the way that the administration went about imposing tariffs was legal, and so we, you know, exercised our rights as Americans that challenge the case in court," said Stephen Woldenberg, senior vice president of sales for Learning Resources.

Woldenberg said the company imports the majority of its educational toys from China.

"[It's] effectively an embargo. So, at tariff rates of 145%, no company –ourselves or any other company importing from China – could really make it work," he said.

Woldenberg said Learning Resources was founded in 1984 by his grandmother. It remains family-owned to this day. And he never imagined it would find itself in the center of one of the most consequential rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court in the past decade.

"This case became a much bigger issue about balanced power, rule of law, and so we're grateful that the Supreme Court reinforced those foundational principles of our country," he said.

The court ruled Trump does not have the authority to unilaterally impose sweeping tariffs on nearly every country under a federal emergency powers law, delivering a significant blow to the president's controversial economic policy.

"It's not at all a surprise to me, but it is very consequential, in that it sort of eliminates the ability of the Trump administration to kind of use trade as a blunt instrument," said Matt Rice of Goldstone Financial Group.

Rice said that reciprocal tariffs on goods from Mexico, China and Canada will no longer apply, and companies that have already paid tariffs could potentially demand refunds from the U.S. Treasury Department.

"Well, I think ultimately it's going to be disinflationary, which is a good thing, so we're going to see, kind of, prices of goods come down, a bit," he said.

Woldenberg said they are hopeful to see that tariff money returned.

"The administration and the country had no issue taking the money when the tariffs were imposed and collected. So, they should be able to just flip it around and hand it back to us," he said.

Learning Resources said the toy industry in general saw softer sales in 2025. 

There is no word yet on how or when a tariff refund could take place, but economists said consumers are unlikely to see any direct relief from the Supreme Court's ruling.

"Even if refunds are ultimately issued, they're not going to be issued to consumers, they're going to be issued to firms, and then you're depending on firms ultimately passing those back to the consumer," said Natasha Sarin, co-founder of The Budget Lab at Yale.

To add even more confusion, the Supreme Court did not give any guidance on what should happen to the tariff revenue the federal government already collected.