Legal experts view Loper Bright as a major transfer of power from agencies to judges. “You have incredibly technical areas of law for which the U.S. Supreme Court in Loper Bright has now paved a path for individual judges, or panels of three judges, to make decisions without having the technical expertise,” said Sanne Knudsen, a professor at the University of Washington School of Law, whose scholarship on deference doctrines has been cited by the Supreme Court.
The Project 2025 proposal is "shocking" and, if pursued, "would surely chill any election administrator from taking action that is, according to Project 2025, unlawful," said Lisa Marshall Manheim, a University of Washington law professor. "Frankly, just having this proposal in this document likely will have a chilling effect."
Apple’s new iPhone 16 lineup features new colors, a new camera button and – perhaps most noteworthy — a new AI system. Ryan Calo, professor of law and in the Information School at the UW, is quoted.
Royalty-chasing by inflating streaming numbers isn’t new, but the use of AI was a “critical ingredient” for Smith’s seven-year-long scheme, said music and intellectual property law professor Peter Nicolas from the University of Washington School of Law. “Otherwise, it would have just been very clunky to commit the fraud on this level,” Nicolas said. “Having the thousands of songs was key to his ability to avoid detection for a while.”
“Paramount is the concern for the right to a fair trial by jury, by an impartial jury,” said Mary D. Fan, a criminal law professor at the University of Washington. Often, victims' family members will want to attend every day of a trial as a way to signal support for the victim, or because they want to see for themselves if justice is being done. Prosecutors often consult with survivors and victims' families, and may give their concerns heavy consideration when crafting arguments against moving a trial, Fan said. “There are a number of potential adverse impacts, depending on where the change of venue occurs. Certainly it may be more of an inconvenience to witnesses, to family members who might want to attend every day of the trial,” said Fan.
"In supporting political campaigns (financially and otherwise) we need to pay adequate attention to legislative races, where someday the rubber may actually have to meet the road."
A federal court judge in Portland, Oregon heard opening arguments Monday in a case challenging the merger of grocery giants Kroger and Albertsons. The hearing is critical, and could decide the merger’s direction. Douglas Ross, professor of law at the UW, is quoted.
“There's a famous – or infamous – quote from President Teddy Roosevelt… he called the Dawes Act ‘a mighty pulverizing [engine] to break up the tribal mass’. And he was referring to the tribal land base,” said Monte Mills, a professor and director of the Native American Law center at the University of Washington School of Law. “The result of that was that after allotments were made, there was surplus land on many reservations that could be open to non-Indian homesteaders,” he added.
“AI is not a thing like a train or even a railway system, right?” said Ryan Calo, a professor at the University of Washington School of Law who is co-director of the UW Tech Policy Lab. “It’s best understood as a set of techniques that are aimed at approximating some aspect of human or animal cognition using machines. So you can’t regulate AI as such.”
The broader context of the decision, said Sanne Knudsen, professor of environmental law at the University of Washington, is that the Supreme Court seems to be on a deregulatory trend. She pointed to two separate cases challenging the Clean Water Act’s interpretation of the “waters of the United States.”
Ryan Calo, Professor of Law at the University of Washington, joins Kevin Frazier, Assistant Professor at St. Thomas College of Law and a Tarbell Fellow at Lawfare, to discuss how advances in AI are undermining already insufficient privacy protections. The two dive into Calo's recent testimony before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Their conversation also covers the novel privacy issues presented by AI and the merits of different regulatory strategies at both the state and federal level.
Eli Sanders contributed in-depth research to this story as part of the Technology, Law, and Public Policy Clinic at the University of Washington School of Law.
“Most law graduates fail the bar within a small mark, usually less than five points,” says Tamara F. Lawson, dean of the University of Washington School of Law. “That’s leaving very competent graduates on the sidelines.”
The high court ruling green-lighting contact between government and tech companies to stymie falsehoods online hasn’t deterred a GOP campaign against academics, nonprofits and tech industry initiatives aimed at addressing their spread. The UW's Kate Starbird, associate professor of human centered design and engineering, and Ryan Calo, professor of law and in the Information School, are quoted.
Imagine a system that lets big landlords in your city work together to raise rents, using detailed, otherwise-private information about what their competitors are charging. Douglas Ross, professor of law at the UW, is quoted.
Dr. Ryan Calo, University of Washington School of Law and Co-Director of the University’s Technology Lab, warned that AI technologies, which are trained to recognize patterns in large data sets, are allowing companies to derive sensitive insights about individuals from seemingly innocuous information.
"We’ve just experienced the first serious attempted assassination of a presidential candidate in the social media age. How widely are conspiracy theories being spread by our largest platforms?" writes Julia Angwin. The UW's Kate Starbird, associate professor of human centered design and engineering, and Ryan Calo, professor of law and in the Information School, are quoted.
The judges will “split into different groupings in different cases, just based on how each person understands the law and what the right understanding of the law is,” Spitzer said. As for the justices’ judicial approaches, Spitzer said the Court tends to split almost 50/50 in leaning “activist” — aiming to change or improve the law through rulings, such as in cases relating to social justice — or “conservative.”
Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., convened the hearing with experts from the University of Washington School of Law, Mozilla, the AI Now Institute and ACT: the App Association to discuss the need to set a nationwide framework for how companies collect, use and share consumers' personal information and "why AI is an accelerant that increases the need for passing [such data privacy] legislation soon."
The Senate hearing will feature testimony from Ryan Calo, a professor at the University of Washington School of Law and co-director of the University of Washington Tech Policy Lab; Amba Kak, co-executive director of the AI Now Institute; and Udbhav Tiwari, director of global product policy at Mozilla.
If the court decides that the remedy is simply more divestitures in Washington, “that would be a win for Kroger and a loss, as far as I can tell, for the state, because the state doesn’t want the deal to go through, period,” said Doug Ross, an antitrust expert at the University of Washington School of Law.
If the court decides that the remedy is simply more divestitures in Washington, “that would be a win for Kroger and a loss, as far as I can tell, for the state, because the state doesn’t want the deal to go through, period,” said Doug Ross, an antitrust expert at the University of Washington School of Law.
Academics researching online misinformation in the US are learning a hard lesson: Academic freedom cannot be taken for granted. They face a concerted effort—including by members of Congress—to undermine or silence their work documenting false and misleading internet content. The claim is that online misinformation researchers are trying to silence conservative voices. The evidence suggests just the opposite.
The landmark decision could alter legal precedent in our nation. We're getting expert insight into what exactly this ruling means and what's next. Jessica West, lecturer of law at the UW, is interviewed.
