On May 30, 2025, President Donald Trump announced to rallygoers in Pennsylvania that his administration would soon double the tariff on imported steel from 25 percent to 50 percent. On June 3, 2025, President Trump issued a Proclamation that formally doubles the tariffs on steel articles and derivative steel articles, as well as doubling the tariffs (to 50 percent) on aluminum articles and derivative aluminum articles.

At a rally in Pennsylvania on May 30, 2025, President Donald Trump announced that his administration would soon double the tariff on imported steel from 25 percent to 50 percent. President Trump initially imposed steel tariffs during his first administration pursuant to Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 (“Section 232”). In February 2025, President Trump issued a Proclamation extending these tariffs under Section 232.

On May 28, 2025, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of International Trade (“CIT”) in V.O.S. Selections, Inc. v. USA and Oregon v. Trump, issued a consolidated opinion that effectively overturns tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump in April 2025, as well as subsequent changes to those tariffs. The following day, a federal district court in the District of Columbia issued an order enjoining enforcement of many tariffs against private plaintiffs in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump.

Since his second term began in January 2025, President Donald J. Trump has issued a flurry of executive orders that imposed sweeping global tariffs, including new tariffs on China, Mexico, and Canada, on steel and aluminum imports, and on certain automobile parts. On April 2, 2025 (referred to as “Liberation Day”), President Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on countries across the globe, calculated as responses to their tariffs or unfair trade practices .

The Supreme Court unanimously rejected the Fifth Circuit’s “moment-of-threat” rule in evaluating a police shooting (or other use of force) under the requisite Fourth Amendment excessive force analysis in a decision issued on May 15, 2025. While incorrectly described by some media as an “expansion” of the review standard for Fourth Amendment excessive force claims, the Supreme Court’s opinion was a rejection of the Fifth Circuit’s outlier rule and an upholding of the long-standing Supreme Court precedent – embraced by the majority of circuit courts, including the Ninth Circuit – that courts must evaluate the totality of the circumstances known to the force-wielding officer leading up to that law enforcement officer’s use of force, from the perspective of an objectively reasonable officer, not just some arbitrary temporal subset of those circumstances.

On April 28, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order declaring mandatory English language proficiency for truck drivers in the U. S.The order rescinds and replaces the 2016 Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration memo that previously overlooked the non-English language proficient as a cause for an out-of-service designation. Now, the FMCSA has been directed to be more stringent in enforcing the standard of English proficiency in commercial truck drivers. President Trump cites that common sense dictates truck drivers should be able to communicate with other drivers and the public in English as well as understand English traffic signs.

On April 22, 2025, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed into law Senate Bills 68 and 69 (collectively dubbed the “Comprehensive Tort Reform Legislation”), with the aim of curbing lawsuit abuse and the explosion of outsized nuclear verdicts in the state’s courts. This landmark legislation, which was widely supported by Georgia’s business community, makes a host of changes to Georgia law in the areas of civil practice, evidentiary matters, damages, and liability in tort actions.

On April 27, 2025, the Washington state Legislature passed HB 1217, the Housing Stability Act, which caps rent increases for most single-family and multi-family landlords and mandates specific notice requirements for rent increases that landlords must comply with to increase rents.  The bill will take effect upon the Governor’s signature or May 20, 2025.