RTP's Fourth Branch Podcast

The broadcasting market used to be straightforward. It functioned on a linear model consisting of content companies, distribution channels and audiences. The advent of the internet disrupted that model, placing new competitive pressures on traditional players and forcing them to rethink their strategy. Vertical integration – the common ownership or control of both programming and distribution unde...

In this episode, Adam Thierer and Brent Skorup speak with Senator Mike Lee on the current state of drone regulation. The senator speaks to his proposal for a cooperative, federal solution to regulatory holdup in drone technology innovation. Additional Resources: Senator Lee's proposed Drone Integration and Zoning Act: https://www.lee.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2019/10/sen-lee-introduces-drone-int...

Last term in Gundy v. U.S., without Justice Kavanaugh the Court was split between a restoration of a substantial limitation on the administrative state and the status quo. In this case, as Justice Gorsuch described it, Congress gave “the nation’s chief prosecutor… the power to write his own criminal code governing the lives of a half-million citizens.” This case has enormo...

With the conclusion of the Federal Trade Commission’s 21st Century Hearings, the agency is finalizing several reports concerning the state of competition in the US, vertical mergers, the consumer welfare standard, and privacy. This panel summarizes the issues the FTC explored in the hearings and discuss their views of potential FTC output. Featuring: - Maureen Ohlhausen, Partner, Baker Botts LLP a...

In this episode, Paul Rubin, the world’s leading expert on cooperative capitalism, discusses his new book, The Capitalism Paradox: How Cooperation Enables Free Market Competition. Rubin explains how we should think about markets, economics, and business and makes a case that this book is an indispensable tool for understanding and communicating the vast benefits the free market bestows upon societ...

What happens when a state agency uses without authorization copyrighted videos and pictures of Blackbeard’s famous pirate ship, the Queen Ann’s Revenge? Is this an act of state-sanctioned piracy for which the copyright owner can sue for the violation of his rights, or is the state immune from such a lawsuit under its inherent sovereign immunity? This is the question that the Supreme Co...

With the advent of mobile devices, ubiquitous home laptop, tablet and iPad computers, content streaming and more, the need for wireless service is forever on the rise in the United States. Industry experts note that capacity limits are being stretched. With the arrival of the "Internet of Things," linking the internet with everything from nanny cams to home/office climate systems to autonomous veh...

The Department of Labor administers and enforces more than 180 federal laws, with mandates and regulations that affect workplace activities for about 10 million employers and 125 million workers. Since its creation in 1913, DOL has been in the vanguard of the regulatory state. This episode, moderated by former Solicitor of Labor Gregory Jacob, features a discussion with Cheryl Stanton, head of DOL...

In statutes such as the Federal Power Act and Clean Water Act, Congress divided responsibility for oversight of energy generation and transmission projects between federal agencies and the States. In recent years, several States have more aggressively used their perceived statutory and regulatory authority in furtherance of climate change goals, prompting litigation from affected parties and regul...

Earlier in October, the D.C. Circuit issued its long-awaited opinion in Mozilla v. Federal Communications Commission in which the court largely upheld the Commission’s 2017 Restoring Internet Freedom Order that reversed the Obama Administration’s 2015 decision to apply common carrier regulation to the Internet. While the court upheld the bulk of the agency’s actions as reasonable under the Supreme...

This podcast features a fascinating back-and-forth on the implications of new amendments to California's privacy law, CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act). Is California setting the law of the land? How will the FTC respond? What will this mean for interstate online commerce? These and other questions are explored in the episode. Featuring: - Ian Adams, Vice President of Policy, TechFreedom - Jo...

On September 10, 2019, The Federalist Society hosted a luncheon cosponsored with the Center for Equal Opportunity (CEO). CEO released and presented a new study and report entitled “Race and Ethnicity in Undergraduate Admissions at Five Virginia Universities," which examined how admissions programs at five Virginia public universities (University of Virginia, College of William & Mary, Virginia Tec...

The status of independent contractors in California has been hotly debated over the past year, with the landmark California Supreme Court decision in Dynamex and with the resulting debate over California’s Assembly Bill 5. The ABC test, if ultimately adopted in the Golden State, would reclassify as employees millions of workers who currently operate as independent contractors. The impact on Califo...

What are the costs and benefits of occupational licensing? Why do many believe that the laws around licensing ought to be reformed, and what has Arizona been doing to address these concerns? Jon Riches of the Goldwater Institute gives an overview of this issue as it has played out in the Grand Canyon State. Featuring: - Jon Riches, Director of National Litigation, Goldwater Institute Visit our web...

Is “investor protection” coordinated sufficiently with “promotion of capital formation”? This teleforum will consider this question in connection with recent public rulemaking developments at the Securities and Exchange Commission. Public companies in the United States are subject to requirements (i) to establish and maintain internal control over financial...

In this episode, Alexander Major and Franklin Turner, nationally recognized commentators in this area, will discuss the recent changes to critical requirements promulgated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the auditing effort underway by the Defense Contract Management Agency, and DoD’s looming Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) program. The discussion will be m...

"Techlash" refers to a growing public concern over the behavior of big technology companies and the call for government action to curtail what are seen as abusive practices. Figures on the right and the left alike have expressed concerns of over privacy, free speech, and fairness on online platforms. Most recently, 50 attorneys general have launched an investigation into Google for violations of a...

Jon Kotler, a California fan of the London soccer club Fulham FC, wanted to put the letters "COYW" on his license plate. The letters stand for a common phrase that Fulham fans use to support their team: "Come on You Whites!" "White" is meant to refer to the color of Fulham's home kits, but the DMV deemed the acroynym offensive and prevented Kotler from using it. Kotler filed a federal suit claimin...

The Endangered Species Act has been credited with preventing extinctions but criticized for failing to recover species and imposing unfair burdens on property owners. Recently, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marines Fisheries Service finalized several new Endangered Species Act regulations intended to improve the law’s implementation and promote species recovery. Lawsuits chal...

In this episode, Jeff Holmstead and Megan Herzog discuss the recent rule change from the EPA on emissions standards. The Affordable Clean Energy plan replaces the Obama-era Clean Power Plan. The reduction in admissions standards has raised new questions: what does the Clean Air Act authorize EPA to regulate, how much discretion does EPA have in regulating emissions, which plan more closely fits th...

In this inaugural Tech Roundup podcast, experts discuss various questions raised by "deep fake" technology, in which machine learning algorithms are used to create synthetic videos and photos. What are the potential societal and political implications of their emergence? What challenges might they present to regulators? Join Professor Robert Chesney (co-author of "Deep Fakes: A Looming Challenge f...

In 2018, the California Superior Court announced a new test for determining whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor. In this Explainer podcast episode, Luke Wake of the National Federation of Independent Businesses breaks down the case and its implications for small business owners in California. Featuring: - Luke Wake, Senior Staff Attorney, NFIB Small Business Legal Center V...

In this inaugural episode of the Regulatory Transparency Project's Explainer podcast series, Ann Carlson and James Coleman discuss the merits and implications of the Green New Deal. What is the Green New Deal, what are its aims, and how might it achieve them? Is the proposal realistic? How does it compare to landmark pieces of environmental legislation from the past decades? These and other questi...

Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act requires public accommodations be accessible to the disabled community. Since its enactment in 1991, it has been understood that any store, restaurant, theater, hotel facility, school, or other building private entities own or lease and make available to the public meet certain requirements for disability access. Plaintiffs attorneys have been aggre...