“Welcome to BIG, a newsletter about the politics of monopoly. If you’d like to sign up, you can do so here. Or just read on…Today’s issue is on an unusual type of story – it’s about how politics can work to fix a major social problem. Ten days ago, the House of Representatives passed a bill… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Legislation
DC Attorney General Introduces Legislation to Stop Algorithmic Discrimination
EPIC: “[On December 9, 2021] District of Columbia Attorney General Karl A. Racine introduced landmark legislation to strengthen civil rights protections for DC residents and prohibit companies and institutions from using algorithms that produce biased or discriminatory results and lock individuals, especially members of vulnerable communities, out of critical opportunities, like jobs and housing. “At… Continue Reading
Law as Code: Introducing AustLII’s DataLex AI
Mowbray, Andrew and Greenleaf, Graham and Chung, Philip, Law as Code: Introducing AustLII’s DataLex AI (November 16, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3971919 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3971919 “AustLII, as a provider of free access to legal information, has a distinctive approach to the use of artificial intelligence (AI) which is called ‘DataLex’. This article introduces that approach, and… Continue Reading
Senate Judiciary Committee Approves Bill to Make PACER Free
Bloomberg Law – “The Senate Judiciary Committee approved bipartisan legislation Thursday designed to make U.S. court documents free to the general public. Committee members of both parties asked to be included as cosponsors of the measure (S. 2614) that would require the federal judiciary to create a new PACER system that would be free for… Continue Reading
Success in Criminal Legal Reforms, 2021
“Formerly incarcerated activists, lawmakers, and advocates achieved important changes in criminal justice policy this year to reduce mass incarceration, expand voting rights and advance racial justice. Success in Criminal Legal Reforms, 2021, by Nicole D. Porter, describes these key changes: Sentencing: Several states addressed extreme sentencing. Two states — Colorado and Illinois — addressed felony… Continue Reading
Visualizing the Effect of Climate Pledges on Global Temperatures
Center for Data Innovation: “The New York Times has created a series of visualizations depicting the effects different government climate change pledges will have on global temperatures. The visualizations use data on government pledges from Climate Action Tracker, an environmental advocacy organization in Germany. For example, one visualization shows that greenhouse gas emissions under current… Continue Reading
How to fix social media? Start with independent research.
Brookings: “…The system of APIs set up by Twitter over the past decade—most of which were set up for business purposes as opposed to research—led to a flowering of academic research using Twitter data. And to be very clear, Twitter deserves kudos for making so much data available, including specialized collections around Russian Internet Research… Continue Reading
CRS – Compilation of Federal Whistleblower Protection Statutes
CRS Report – Compilation of Federal Whistleblower Protection Statutes November 24, 2021: “This report provides information regarding federal whistleblower and employee protection statutes and their text…” Continue Reading
The Rise of Plain Language Laws
Blasie, Michael, The Rise of Plain Language Laws (October 1, 2021). University of Miami Law Review, 2022 Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3941564 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3941564 “When lawmakers enacted 778 plain language laws across the United States, no one noticed. Apart from a handful, these laws went untracked and unstudied. Without study, large questions remain about these… Continue Reading
Statement in Support of the Freedom to Vote Act
Democracy Letter November 2021: “We, the undersigned, are scholars of democracy writing in support of the Freedom to Vote Act, the most important piece of legislation to defend and strengthen American democracy since the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This bill would protect our elections from interference, partisan gerrymandering, dark money, and voter suppression. We… Continue Reading
The Lumen database collects and analyzes legal complaints and requests for removal of online materials
Lumen.org: “Lumen collects and studies online content removal requests, providing transparency and supporting analysis of the Web’s takedown “ecology,” in terms of who sends requests, why, and to what ends. Lumen seeks to facilitate research about different kinds of complaints and requests for removal – legitimate and questionable – that are being sent to Internet publishers,… Continue Reading
OSC Issues Hatch Act Report Documenting Violations by 13 Senior Trump Administration Officials, Including at the 2020 Republican National Conventio
“The U.S. Office of Special Counsel November 9, 2021 issued a report outlining the investigative findings of its career Hatch Act Unit staff in response to Hatch Act complaints filed with OSC regarding senior Trump administration officials’ participation in the 2020 Republican National Convention (RNC) and their political activities leading up to the presidential election.… Continue Reading
