The FTC should investigate how neurotechnology companies are handling and sharing consumer data using brain-computer interface (BCI) technology, Senate Democrats said in a letter to FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson on Monday.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Montana on April 25 transferred a case filed by four members of the Blackfeet Nation tribe challenging the tariffs on Canada issued under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to the Court of International Trade. Judge Dana Christensen held that two cases establishing the trade court's exclusive jurisdiction to hear cases arising out of the Trading With the Enemy Act, IEEPA's predecessor, confirm CIT's exclusive jurisdiction to hear cases involving IEEPA, given that IEEPA has the "same operative language as that contained in the TWEA" (Susan Webber v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, D.Mont. # 4:25-00026).
The Pacific Legal Foundation, the libertarian legal advocacy group that recently brought a case against the legality of tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act on behalf of 11 importers, has had "preliminary" talks with the other advocacy groups that have brought cases challenging the tariffs on whether to proceed with separate cases. Molly Nixon, attorney at the foundation, told us she's "in touch" with the two other groups who have brought cases against the tariffs, the New Civil Liberties Alliance and the Liberty Justice Center, but that nothing is confirmed about whether the groups will combine cases.
A group of constitutional scholars, lawyers, retired federal judges and former U.S. senators and politicians filed an amicus brief at the Court of International Trade in the case on President Donald Trump's use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs. The amici, led by former Virginia senator and governor George Allen, argued that IEEPA "cannot bear [the] weight" of Trump's trade action, adding that the statute only permits "limited and targeted actions under narrow conditions" and not "sweeping economic realignment" (V.O.S. Selections v. Donald J. Trump, CIT # 25-00066).
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier (R) sued social media platform Snap for violating a kids social media law and the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act (FDUTPA), his office announced Tuesday. Enacted last year, HB-3 prohibits kids 13 and younger from creating social media accounts and requires parental consent for 14- and 15-year-olds to create accounts, among other things.
If federal regulatory agencies implement the White House's April 9 presidential memo direction and repeal regulations without obtaining public input (see 2504100067), "litigation is virtually assured," Pillsbury lawyers Reza Zarghamee, Amanda Halter and Jillian Marullo wrote Wednesday. They said the directive relies on the Administrative Procedure Act's "good cause" exception to obtaining public input. Litigation challenging the memo and any deregulation stemming from it might not proceed uniformly, since there's a lack of consensus among federal courts on how to evaluate good-cause claims, they said. The divergence among various federal circuit courts raises the risk of inconsistent outcomes, they added. If multiple challenges are filed to the same regulatory appeal in multiple circuits, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation may consolidate them, and it could assign the matter to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, where de novo review would apply.
A loss of agency independence will ease the path for corruption and make it harder to address bipartisan issues such as privacy and increasing competition, said a trio of Democratic agency officials recently fired by the White House. For agencies like the FTC or Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, “if we are an arm of the administration, then instead of being a watchdog, we become a lap dog,” said fired PCLOB member and former FCC official Travis LeBlanc during a Center for American Progress panel discussion Wednesday.
Amid European uncertainty about the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (see 2504230002), Microsoft Chief Privacy Officer Julie Brill advised IAPP Global Policy Summit attendees to talk calmly with other countries about the state of U.S. privacy. On the same panel Thursday, Cisco CPO Harvey Jang said engagement with regulators and legislators is a must at the moment.
The Society for American Archeology opposed a CTIA petition asking the FCC to launch a rulemaking (see 2503270059) to update its rules implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). “The goal of the CTIA’s petition is for the FCC to structure its regulations in such a way that wireless geographic licenses would not be considered Major Federal Actions under” NEPA, said a filing posted Tuesday in RM-12003.
A loss of agency independence will ease the path for corruption and make it harder to address bipartisan issues such as privacy and increasing competition, said a trio of Democratic agency officials recently fired by the White House. For agencies like the FTC or Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, “if we are an arm of the administration, then instead of being a watchdog, we become a lap dog,” said fired PCLOB member and former FCC official Travis LeBlanc during a Center for American Progress panel discussion Wednesday.