The Trump Administration is Using BEAD Funds as a Cudgel. Is that Legal? The Trump Administration is threatening to withhold funds from states that lawfully regulate AI and broadband. Those threats are likely unlawful.

In case you missed it, the Trump administration is illegally threatening to withhold billions in already awarded broadband improvement grants from states that attempt ANY regulation of AI or ANY oversight of price-gouging telecom giants

(Charter and Cox moved to strike my testimony in this California PUC proceeding.)

Do you care about the Internet? Read the document that your ISP doesn't want you to see...

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Look at Brendan Carr doing all this work to bring about bipartisanship. Everyone thinks he's wrong!

FCC Commissioner Anna M. Gomez issued the following statement after the FCC's Media Bureau approved the Nexstar/TEGNA merger, which violates the existing 39% national ownership cap in federal law, without an open and transparent process and a vote before the full Commission.

NEWS: The FCC has approved the unlawful Nexstar-TEGNA merger behind closed doors.

The consequences of this rubber stamp approval will be felt in living rooms and newsrooms across the country, resulting in fewer voices, less competition, and higher costs for consumers.

can't wait to see the first CVDG

The FCC is asleep at the wheel on this merger, but watch the @californiapuc.bsky.social. The Public Advocate's Off. is trying to do good.

Their testimony is here: docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDoc...

(Disclosure, I'm also a witness in the review. Here's my testimony: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....).

Outages are not "a fact of life." They are the consequence of a series of technical failures that persist because of market failures that persist because of regulatory failures.

Tejas N. Narechania makes the connection between research, policy, and teaching As each hot new idea or gadget has grabbed funders and headlines — from broadband to AI — Narechania has kept his eye on striking a balance between innovation and accessibility.

As a scholar focused on the intersection of law and technology, Berkeley Law Professor Tejas N. Narechania has had a front-row seat to profound shifts fostered by Silicon Valley’s innovations. https://bit.ly/4rBOmfX #BerkeleyLaw @tnarecha.bsky.social

literally two minutes ago...

me: yes, kiddo, what's up?
8yo: "well, this is actually more of a comment than a question..."

omg 🫠🫠

James Grimmelmann

Jotwell TechLaw:
James Grimmelmann, The Edge of Tomorrow, JOTWELL (November 28, 2025) (reviewing Tejas N. Narechania & Scott Shenker, How to Save the Internet, __ Berkeley Tech. L.J. __ (forthcoming), available at SSRN (Mar. 18, 2025)), cyber.jotwell.com/the-edge-of-....

I have a new Jotwell review of Tejas N. Narechania & Scott Shenker's _How to Save the Internet_, a really nice law/CS collaboration on Internet architecture policy.

article: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
review: cyber.jotwell.com/the-edge-of-...

NFIB v. Sebelius, unconstitutional coercion. Particularly in view of 152(b) and the lack of any federal authority over broadband service regulation.

To be clear, that's my answer to your question. Not my sentiment about the severity of it.

🤷🏾‍♂️

I do, in fact, carry my passport and my kids' passport around with me. This is a new habit.

Will Brendan Carr go on a podcast about this?

More than any other Court in history, the Roberts Court uses its docket discretion for the purpose of reconsidering and overruling precedent.

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

The Federal Communications Bar Association has an annual dinner, where, by tradition, the FCC Chair gives a speech.

Is Jimmy Kimmel available to emcee the event? The FCBA should seriously consider it.

Not really an overstatement to say that the test of a free society is whether or not comedians can make fun of the country's leader on TV without repurcussions.

I wrote a little bit about how California proposed a law making broadband affordable for poor people.

And how telecom lobbyists have already destroyed the effort:

Big changes unfolding for CA housing Between an increasingly influential union and a new state housing agency, one of California’s biggest crises is getting a shakeup.

UC Berkeley Law Professor Tejas Narechania (@tnarecha.bsky.social) weighed in on CA's effort to regulate streaming services, saying it can attempt to enact “consumer protections aimed at California residents, even if they affected out-of-state content providers.” calmatters.org/newsletter/c...

lol! well, at least there's always money...

But still deceptively advertised, see bsky.app/profile/tnar...

a fairness doctrine for polarized media

I think yes as a matter of (c) law, but perhaps no as a matter of contract law, depending on the subscription's Terms of Use. If this holds, the distinction btw property & contract rules--elaborated most recently by the Supreme Court in Lexmark v. Impression Products--may become even more important.

Great piece + thread

A screenshot from SSRN that reads: "The Federalist’s Dilemma: State AI Regulation & Pathways Forward. George Mason Law & Economics Research Paper No. 25-07."

Why federalism should embrace a federal moratorium on state regulation of AI is ... a take.

Exactly the sort of post-hoc ends-oriented nonsense you'd expect

AI governance is (at least) a competition problem, more than a copyright problem.