RTP's Fourth Branch Podcast

As countries, states, and locales have worked to get a handle on the spread of the COVID19 pandemic, one solution that appears to have been effective is thorough contact-tracing. In this episode, Jennifer Huddleston and Brent Skorup discuss how contact-tracing might work here, what privacy concerns it might involve, and what it means for data privacy going forward.

Featuring:
- Jennifer Huddleston, Director of Technology & Innovation Policy, American Action Forum
- Brent Skorup, Senior Research Fellow, Mercatus Center, George Mason University

Visit our website – www.RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect with us on social media.

On September 4, 2019, the Federal Trade Commission announced sweeping regulatory changes to the operation of YouTube, one of the internet’s most popular websites. YouTube has 2 billion monthly active users and features content from more than 50 million individual creators, most of whom are small businesses or individuals. Many of the creators affected earn money using YouTube and stand to lose, in aggregate, hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars from these regulatory changes. Some will need to restructure their business model. The changes also subject content creators to increased risk of prosecution and stiff fines. Yet these significant regulatory changes were never put before a legislature; none of the content creators or users of the website were privy to the rationale or design of the regulation; and there was no public process for comment. Instead, the new regulation was confidentially negotiated between YouTube and FTC staff and put into place by a court.

FTC settlements have long been praised by those who value the “soft law” benefits of such an approach: flexibility to deal with case-by-case specific problems, particularly in fast-changing industries; reduced need to establish one-size-fits-all industry-wide rules; efficient resolution of cases; the ability to shape future behavior through a kind of common law. Such settlements have also long been criticized by those who emphasize the difference between them and hard law: a creation of regulatory ambiguity; lack of process that considers the interests of the full range of stakeholders; a “rulemaking” environment with a power differential between the negotiating parties; and an agency ability to accumulate incremental changes to the law that in total can be quite significant.

This episode explores FTC settlements and consent decrees, including the YouTube case and what it means for FTC enforcement going forward. It will take place as part of the Federalist Society's Executive Branch Review Week.

Featuring:
- Jessica Rich, Distinguished Fellow, Institute for Technology Law & Policy, Georgetown Law
- Sean Royall, Partner, Kirkland & Ellis LLP
- Gerard Stegmaier, Partner, Reed Smith LLP
- [Moderator] Neil Chilson, Senior Research Fellow for Technology and Innovation, Charles Koch Institute

Visit our website – www.RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect with us on social media.

In this episode, Brooks Rainwater and Jon Riches discuss developments in state and local regulations surrounding home-sharing and home-based businesses. How do we balance safety and public goods with innovation and entrepreneurialism?

Featuring:
- Brooks Rainwater, Senior Executive & Director, Center for City Solutions, National League of Cities
- Jon Riches, Director of National Litigation, Goldwater Institute

Visit our website – www.RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect with us on social media.

In this episode, Ajit Pai joins Adam Thierer and Brent Skorup to discuss the principles driving the Federal Communications Commission in recent years, the "Keep Americans Connected" pledge, and how things have changed for the FCC in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Featuring:
- Ajit Pai, Chairman, Federal Communications Commission
- Brent Skorup, Senior Research Fellow, Mercatus Center, George Mason University
- [Host] Adam Thierer, Senior Research Fellow, Mercatus Center, George Mason University

Visit our website – www.RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect with us on social media.

On March 18, the Senate passed and the President signed into law the “Families First Coronavirus Response Act.” Among other things, this new law, set to take effect no later than April 2, 2020, creates a new paid sick leave mandate for all employers with fewer than 500 employees and expands the application of the Family Medical Leave Act to cover all employers in certain circumstances related to the coronavirus. Karen Harned and James Paretti will walk listeners through key provisions of this new law.

Featuring:
- Karen Harned, Executive Director, National Federation of Independent Business Small Business Legal Center
- James A. Paretti, Shareholder, Littler Mendelson P.C.

Visit our website – www.RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect with us on social media.

On March 4, 2020, the Regulatory Transparency Project sponsored a symposium with the University of Pennsylvania Federalist Society student chapter. The second panel of the symposium was titled "Should Social Media Platforms Be Viewpoint Neutral? Should the Government Care?"

Featuring:
- Adam Candeub, Michigan State University College of Law
- Carrie Goldberg, C. A. Goldberg PLLC
- Arthur Milikh, Heritage Foundation
- Nadine Strossen, New York Law School
- Moderator: Neil Chilson, Charles Koch Institute

Visit our website – www.RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect with us on social media.

On March 4, 2020, the Regulatory Transparency Project sponsored a symposium with the University of Pennsylvania Federalist Society student chapter. The first panel of the symposium was titled "Do We Need to Rethink Antitrust for Big Tech?"

Featuring:
- Roger Alford, Notre Dame University
- Jay Himes, Labaton Sucharow LLP
- Salil Mehra, Temple University School of Law
- Moderator: Christopher Yoo, University of Pennsylvania Carey School of Law

Visit our website – www.RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect with us on social media.

The recent Supreme Court ruling in Allen v. Cooper is the latest development in a decades-long series of Congressional enactments and Supreme Court rulings over whether and how Congress can abrogate the sovereign immunity of States from intellectual property infringement suits. This all-star panel will discuss the Court’s most recent decision in the context of the evolution of the Court’s sovereign immunity jurisprudence, the policy concerns of Congress and intellectual property owners, and where we might go from here.

Featuring:
- Prof. John T. Cross, Grosscurth Professor of Intellectual Property Law and Technology Transfer, University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law
- Prof. Ralph Oman, Pravel, Hewitt, Kimball and Kreiger Professorial Lecturer in Intellectual Property and Patent Law
- Prof. Steven Tepp, Professorial Lecturer in Law, George Washington Law, and President and Founder of Sentinal Worldwide
- Prof. Ernest A. Young, Alston & Bird Professor, Duke Law School

Visit our website – www.RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect with us on social media.

Join us as Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai discusses how the FCC is addressing the COVID-19 pandemic. What measures has the FCC taken to date, and what is planned in the future?

Featuring:
- Ajit Pai, Chairman, Federal Communications Commission

Visit our website – www.RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect with us on social media.