We’ve made it to June.

Quiet weekend. On Friday Trump did announce his intention to raise existing tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from 25% to 50%, effective this coming Wednesday (June 4th). This tariff action is unrelated to the broader tariffs that were the subject of the V.O.S. Selections case, but instead is an expansion of action Trump first took in 2018 under authority granted by Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. More recently, the E.U. has indicated it “is prepared to impose countermeasures,” perhaps waiting until mid-July, but perhaps earlier.

Speaking of V.O.S. Selections v. Trump, some of the legal analysis in the wake of the lower court decision has focused on the so-called major questions doctrine, a term of art that has loomed over much of the Roberts Court’s jurisprudence but wasn’t used in a SCOTUS majority opinion until 2022. The general idea behind the doctrine is the belief that, with respect to an issue having “vast economic and political significance,” Congress would need to clearly delegate to a regulatory agency authority to address that issue, as opposed to the regulatory agency being able to claim authority under some more general statutory provision. One distinction between V.O.S. Selections and the major questions doctrine cases is that here, with respect to tariffs, we are talking about the delegation of Congressional authority to the President himself rather than to a regulatory agency. Should that difference matter? Will SCOTUS think it matters? Stay tuned.

In other news, Ukraine successfully launched a coordinated drone attack on air bases throughout Russia, damaging as many as one-third of Russia’s long-range bomber forces. Also, Trump withdrew his nomination for NASA administrator, tech billionaire (and close friend of Elon Musk) Jared Isaacman, citing a “thorough review of prior associations.” This is believed to refer to the fact that Isaacman had previously donated to Democratic Senators Kelly and Casey, although the NYTimes’ reporting asserts that Trump was told about this back in December.