Protecting Innovation across the Country and across the Globe
TechFreedom at work in Texas, California, DC, and outer space
Space Law: Corbin and Jim filed an amicus brief at the DC Circuit once again arguing that the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) doesn’t apply in outer space.
Antitrust: Bilal filed an amicus brief in the Ninth Circuit urging the court to grant rehearing en banc in Epic v. Apple. The brief describes significant concerns with the broad application of the “tethering” and “balancing” tests of California’s Unfair Competition Law (UCL).
AI: On Substack, Corbin wrote about the dangers of letting “thought leaders” regulate AI: “There must be order. There must be direction. There must be a neat little plan! And the Very Smart People are just the folks to give us one.”
First Amendment: Ari wrote a Substack piece, also re-published by Techdirt and picked up by Reason, about Texas’s vain effort to restrict pornography. “I do not see how any state interest in reducing the consumption (and thus ultimately proliferation) of entirely protected speech can itself be a legitimate one,” he wrote.
Last week, Ari filed an amicus brief with the Sixth Circuit in Johnson v. Griffin, arguing that courts should not allow people offended by online speech to sue social media users in far-away jurisdictions. He broke down the brief on Twitter.
AICOA: Lawmakers have reintroduced the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICOA) after failing to pass it last Congress. We have long been warning that without significant changes the bill would hurt consumers and be weaponized against content moderation.
SCOTUS: On June 28, Ari will participate in a seminar (paywall) for the Wisconsin State Bar—providing analysis and insights into some of the year’s most important Supreme Court cases.
I think this is the famous “tethering” test.