RTP's Fourth Branch Podcast

For about a decade, some legal scholars have urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to regulate the Internet to ensure "net neutrality," a content nondiscrimination standard for Internet service providers like Comcast and Verizon. This concept has gained popular support, particularly among young adults and those in the tech industry. In 2015, at the behest of President Barack Obama, the...

Should software be regulated like a military weapon? That's the direction in which most Western nations seem to be moving, under the guidance of the international Wassenaar Arrangement governing international export controls. During its 2013 plenary session, the Wassenaar member nations agreed to implement export controls for (1) software, hardware, and technology that generate, operate, deliver o...

On Friday, October 6, Treasury issued the second of its reports to the President on Core Principles for Financial Supervision. When it comes to financial regulation, the Treasury Department has little formal authority. Yet, when Treasury wants to, it can set the tone and drive the priorities. Did the Treasury do that with its most recent report and its June report? What difference might this all m...

On this episode of the Fourth Branch podcast, Gregory McNeal, Pepperdine Law Professor and Chairman of the RTP’s IT and Emerging Technology working group, partners with Mercatus Senior Research Fellow Adam Thierer to discuss the law and policy frameworks impacting emerging technologies. Their talk explores the idea of permissionless innovation, collaborative acceleration, and why a cross-cutting w...

On August 16, the Department of Justice issued a letter repudiating the Department’s participation in an initiative known as “Operation Choke Point” during the Obama administration. Operation Choke Point sought to deprive members of disfavored industries, such as payday lenders and firearms dealers, of the right to access the banking system. This live podcast will discuss Operation Choke Point, th...

In 2011, Congress created a new administrative tribunal in the U.S. Patent Office with the power to cancel previously granted patents, called the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). The PTAB was created to provide an efficient and inexpensive administrative process for eliminating low-quality patents – what are called “bad patents.” Despite its laudable purpose, the PTAB has earned a reputation...

Administrative agencies, and extensive regulation of the economy, have always existed in America. But from the founding to 1900, agencies were constrained by basic principles of representation, separation of powers, and judicial review. In his new book, Bureaucracy in America: The Administrative State’s Challenge to Constitutional Government, Professor Joseph Postell explores American history, fro...

Howard Root started Vascular Solutions, a medical device company, from scratch. Fifteen years later, his Minnesota company had created over 500 American jobs and developed more than 50 new medical devices that saved and improved lives. But in 2011, the federal government accused Howard of marketing medical devices for unapproved uses – a practice prohibited by the FDA. Howard professed his innocen...

The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to the connection of various devices to the Internet. The Internet of Things (IoT) is growing in prominence almost exponentially. Today, manufacturers are creating products with cyber capabilities that range from life-critical systems such as cars or medical devices, to more prosaic, even whimsical products like internet-connected toasters. The expansion of conn...

Congress passes and the President signs several dozen laws every year. Meanwhile, federal departments and agencies issue well over 3,000 regulations of varying significance. Does Congress have a clear grasp of the amount and cost of the thousands of executive branch and federal agency proclamations and issuances, including guidance documents, memoranda, bulletins, circulars, and letters, that carr...

Mike Daugherty is the CEO of LabMD, a medical testing lab. He has spent most of the last decade defending his company against charges that it had deficient cybersecurity practices. The early years of this battle are recorded in his book, "The Devil Inside the Beltway". In so doing, he has become the only litigant to challenge the basic authority that underlies more than 200 enforcement actions rel...

Flytenow was a ridesharing platform for small planes. The company was founded by two pilots, Alan Guichard and Matt Voska. This kind of cost-sharing arrangement was explicitly authorized by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The Flytenow software facilitated the cost-sharing in accordance with FAA rules and also provided a breadth of information about the flight and the pilot including his...

In many federal investigations, a regulatory agency must bring legal action against a company or individual through the traditional court system. However, some regulatory agencies, like the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), have a powerful alternative – administrative proceedings. Rather than filing a lawsuit in federal court, the SEC can institute an administrative proceeding, which is pr...

We have grown accustomed to modern government issuing and enforcing new rules to protect certain public goods, but regulations also have the potential to stifle innovation and harm the most vulnerable among us. Therefore, we must be diligent in reviewing how regulations either succeed or fail us, and think about how we might improve them. The Regulatory Transparency Project promotes a national con...

Devon Westhill introduces and describes the Regulatory Transparency Project's podcast series. Listen to future episodes of the Fourth Branch Podcast ( https://regproject.org/podcast/) to hear leading experts discuss the merits of government rules that affect your daily lives. Featuring: - Devon Westhill, Founding Director, Regulatory Transparency Project Visit our website – https://RegProject.org...