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Big Tech & AI blog
Section 702 Explained: Foreign Intelligence, American Emails and the Warrant Fight How the surveillance program known as Section 702 collects foreign communications, why Americans' messages end up in the database, and why a warrant rule lost in the House on a tie in 2024. Carpenter v. United States and the Trail of Data Every Phone Leaves What the Supreme Court decided in 2018 about cell-site location records, what it deliberately left open, and how the ruling bears on geofences, data brokers and the rest of your digital trail. Google Lost Its Search Monopoly Case, and the Remedy Still Left Chrome in Place A federal judge found in 2024 that Google illegally kept its search monopoly, then in 2025 declined to break it up. What the remedy requires, what it rejected, and why it matters. How to File a Public Comment on a Federal Rule That Agencies Must Weigh How federal rulemaking works, how to find a docket on Regulations.gov, and how to write a comment with facts and experience that an agency has to consider and answer before a rule becomes final. Katz v. United States and the Phone Booth That Made Privacy Constitutional How a gambler's calls from a Los Angeles phone booth led the Supreme Court in 1967 to rule that the Fourth Amendment protects people, not places, and why that idea now governs phones and data. Lina Khan's Amazon Paper and the Revival of Anti-Monopoly Thinking How a 2017 law student's note on Amazon challenged forty years of antitrust orthodoxy, carried its author to the head of the FTC, and changed what both parties say about monopoly. Rural Broadband and the 69 Senators Who Voted to Pay for It The 2021 infrastructure law set aside tens of billions of dollars to wire rural America. Here is what the 69 senators voted for, what changed after 2024, and who is still waiting for a connection. Section 230, the 1996 Liability Shield, and the Fight to Rewrite It A 1995 libel ruling against Prodigy pushed Congress to write Section 230. Here is what the law protects, what it never covered, and how the fight to change it splits both parties. The 2024 Dockworkers' Strike and the Fight Over Automated Ports Why a three-day port strike in October 2024 turned into a national argument about robots, and why a union contract did more to shape automation than any technology policy did. The Ad Tech Ruling Against Google and the Money Behind Free News Websites A 2025 ruling found Google illegally monopolized key ad tech markets. How the split-second auctions behind every news page work, and why they decide what publishers earn. The Breakup of Ma Bell and What Antitrust Can Do When It Means It The 1982 AT&T settlement split the largest company on earth into pieces and unleashed competition in phones and networks. What structural remedies can teach today's tech fights. The Luddites Were Not Against Machines. They Were Against Being Discarded The frame-breakers of 1811 targeted the bosses who used machines to cut wages, and Parliament answered with the gallows. Their real question, who shares the gains, is the AI question too. United States v. Microsoft and the Browser War That Made Room for Google The 1998 antitrust suit against Microsoft ended without a breakup, yet it changed how the company behaved just as Google and a new web were taking shape. Here is how. When Big Tech Brought Left and Right Together on Antitrust How a 2020 House investigation of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google found a Colorado Republican agreeing with Democrats on monopoly power, and why that alliance still matters. When DOGE Reached the Treasury's Payment Systems in February 2025 How a small DOGE team got into the Treasury systems that send nearly every federal payment, and what the lawsuits that followed said about privacy and power. Why the FTC Lost Its Bid to Unwind Meta's Instagram and WhatsApp Deals In November 2025 a judge ruled for Meta, finding the FTC had not proved a present-day monopoly. The strongest arguments on both sides, and what the loss means for merger law. Why the United States Still Has No General Privacy Law How a 1974 law born of Watergate guarded Americans against their government but not against companies, and why every attempt since to close that gap has stalled in Congress.