RTP's Fourth Branch Podcast

Does New York’s “rent stabilization” law violate the federal Constitution? The law, which regulates approximately 1 million apartments in New York City, was enacted more than fifty years ago and remains in effect based on an every-three-year declaration of a housing “emergency.” The law does not merely regulate rent levels, it also limits a property owner’s right to determine who uses an apartment...

In this Explainer episode, Jeff Stier tells the innovative story of Impossible Burger, a company that developed leghemoglobin to mimic the taste of meat in non-meat-based products. Instead of rushing to regulate this new development, FDA took a hands-off approach, allowing the company to bring a beneficial, and widely recognized as safe, product to market. Jeff argues that innovation, rather than...

On March 15, 2020, certain authorities under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) will expire absent renewal by Congress. The authorities set to expire fall into three categories: 1) the business records provision (often referred to as Section 215) that allows for collection of call detail records, among other things; 2) roving wiretaps; and 3) the lone wolf provision. On March 11, the...

In January 2017, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed an antitrust complaint against Qualcomm in the Northern District of California. The FTC alleged that Qualcomm had unlawfully monopolized the market for certain semiconductors important in smartphone technology. Among other things, the FTC claimed that Qualcomm had maintained its market position by requiring chip customers to license their c...

For the past 50 years, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) has required that the federal government assess the potential environmental impact of any major development projects involving the federal government. Proponents of NEPA argue that changes to the NEPA review process would threaten sensitive wildlife habitats and roll back protections against climate change. Others argue, however,...

The state of California and the Canadian province of Quebec have agreed to link their cap-and-trade systems for carbon emissions – these systems require polluters to pay for a permit when they emit greenhouse gases. Now the federal government is suing California. The lawsuit alleges that this agreement violates the Constitution, which says states can’t make international treaties or enter into com...

The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is expected to issue in the coming weeks its long-awaited new rules for colleges and other educational institutions to follow in handling allegations of campus sexual harassment and assault. A highly controversial draft of the new rules has almost completed a notice-and-comment process launched in September 2017 by Secretary of Education Bet...

The Trump Administration recently released its final rule defining “waters of the United States” under the Clean Water Act. This rule, called the “Navigable Waters Protection Rule” is the replacement for the repealed 2015 Clean Water Rule. For decades, the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have struggled to define “waters of the United States” in a way that passe...

In December 2019, the Department of Justice, the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, and the National Institute of Standards issued a joint policy statement on the legal remedies that should be available for infringement of a valid patent on standardized technologies, known in patent law as standard-essential patents (SEP). The 2019 DOJ-USPTO-NIST policy statement replaces a 2013 policy statement on S...

Public notice and comment on rulemaking is a core requirement of the Administrative Procedure Act, and creates the administrative record on which any subsequent judicial review will be based. Yet many people (even people who take the trouble to vote) seem to think that commenting on rules is difficult or futile, and therefore don’t participate – even when they care about the outcome. This live pod...

In this episode, Ashley Baker and Neil Chilson discuss the implications for data security under recently-enacted privacy laws. Although data privacy regulations may shield your data from companies that seek to use it for commercial purposes, certain legal requirements found in these regulations can leave your sensitive information vulnerable to bad actors. Strict data privacy rules such as Califor...

This podcast features audio from a recent event held at the University of California, Berkeley, featuring the insights of Richard Epstein and Daniel Farber. Epstein and Farber go to the philosophical roots of administrative law in order to get to the heart of present-day debates. Featuring: - Richard Epstein, Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law and Director, Classical Liberal Institute, New York Un...

Amazon Web Services, Inc. (Amazon) has claimed in a lawsuit in the United States Court of Federal Claims that unlawful intervention by President Donald Trump deprived it of a $10 billion decade-long contract with the Department of Defense (DoD) for a cloud computing system known as the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI). Long considered the favorite, Amazon nevertheless lost the award...

Gig-economy companies like Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, and others have disrupted sectors across the economy. They’ve done so in part by using new technology to tap a large pool of independent workers. This approach has not only proven to be a winning business model, it has also created a way back into the workforce for millions of people. Students, ex-offenders, single parents, and others excluded from...

In this episode, Adam Thierer and Caleb Watney discuss the emerging questions surrounding the progress of driverless car technology and its regulation. Featuring: - Adam Thierer, Senior Research Fellow, Mercatus Center, George Mason University - Caleb Watney, Fellow, Technology and Innovation, R Street Institute Visit our website – RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and conne...

Do recent state privacy rules, like California's CCPA, impinge on free speech, violate the dormant commerce clause, or are they preempted by other federal laws? Ian Adams and Jennifer Huddleston discuss. Featuring: - Ian Adams, Vice President of Policy, TechFreedom - Jennifer Huddleston, Research Fellow, Mercatus Center, George Mason University Visit our website – www. RegProject.org – to learn mo...

In Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. Harvard, it is alleged that Harvard admissions discriminated against Asian applicants. In this episode, Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Wen Fa discusses the case, the legal context in which the case was brought, and the case’s potential implications. Featuring: Wen Fa, Attorney, Pacific Legal Foundation Visit our website – RegProject.org &ndas...

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) oversees the administration of both Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. What's next for the agency? What are the priorities that the agency should be pursuing? This episode features remarks from FHFA Director Mark Calabria and a discussion of the issues with reform by our panelists. Featuring: - Mark Calabria, Director, Federal Housing Finance Agency - Edward Pint...

In this episode, experts discuss Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects platforms from liability for the content produced by users. Some legislators have recently floated the idea of enforcing 'platform neutrality' in a way that, according to critics, threatens the sort of free speech Section 230 is meant to protect. The experts featured in this episode have a lively discuss...

This episode explores the implications of private rights of action under laws like Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act. Are the parameters around these private rights of action too vague and susceptible to abuse? Experts discuss this question and more. Featuring: - Ashley Baker, Director of Public Policy, Committee for Justice - Jennifer Huddleston, Research Fellow, Mercatus Center, George...

Passed in 1977, the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) was intended to encourage banks and other financial institutions to lend to lower-income individuals in their communities. Has the CRA succeeded in this goal or is there room for improvement? Aaron Klein and Diego Zuluaga weigh in on this important question. Featuring: - Aaron Klein, Fellow in Economic Studies and Policy Director, Center on Regu...

In this episode, Roger Klein and Adam Broad debate the merits of the increasingly prominent "Medicare for All" proposal for healthcare. The discussion is moderated by Courtney Hughes. Featuring: - Roger Klein, Faculty Fellow, Center for Law, Science & Innovation at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University - Adam Broad, Organizer, Illinois Single Payer Coalition - [Moderat...

In this episode, Ashley Baker and Jennifer Huddleston discuss the implications of the famous privacy case, in which the Supreme Court decided that the warrant-less seizure of the plaintiff's cell phone records violated his Fourth Amendment rights. Featuring: Ashley Baker, Director of Public Policy, Committee for Justice Jennifer Huddleston, Research Fellow, Mercatus Center, George Mason University...

With emerging debates around facial recognition technology, the issue of regulating biometric access technologies has become more prominent. San Francisco, notably, has banned government use of facial recognition, and states like Illinois and Texas have also begun more aggressive regulations on biometrics. The implications of these technologies for civil rights and the rules to limit their use are...

The oral argument for County of Maui, Hawaii v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund was heard before the Supreme Court on November 6, 2019. The issue at hand is: "Whether the Clean Water Act requires a permit when pollutants originate from a point source but are conveyed to navigable waters by a nonpoint source, such as groundwater." This teleforum previews the major issues of the case. Featuring: Brianne Gorod,...