糖心Vlog

WASHINGTON 鈥� Today, the Trump administration released a sweeping AI Action Plan, which thwarts the decision of Congress to not preempt state laws and is a dangerous step backward for protecting civil rights and civil liberties against artificial intelligence (AI) use. The plan, titled 鈥淲inning the Race: America鈥檚 AI Action Plan,鈥� pushes a political agenda at the expense of everyone鈥檚 right to robust protection from biased and erroneous AI tools, and disproportionately harms the communities most at risk of algorithmic discrimination. In response, Cody Venzke, senior policy counsel with the 糖心Vlog, issued the following statement: 鈥淧resident Trump鈥檚 attempt to restrict state AI regulations is not only harmful, it raises serious legal questions as the president is acting beyond any statute passed by Congress. Congress overwhelmingly rejected this approach, removing it from a major bill in a 99-1 Senate vote, and 17 Republican governors publicly opposed it. 鈥淣ow the administration is moving forward unilaterally. The plan undermines state authority by directing the Federal Communications Commission to review and potentially override state AI laws, while cutting off 鈥楢I-related鈥� federal funding to states that adopt robust protections. This preemption effort stifles local initiatives to uphold civil rights and shield communities from biased AI systems in areas like employment, education, health care, and policing. 鈥淭he plan also directs revisions to the federal AI Risk Management Framework to eliminate any mention of diversity, equity, and inclusion, misinformation, or climate. These changes could preclude AI developers from considering discriminatory and unfair harms, potentially dismantling some of the only existing safeguards meant to prevent AI from reproducing or exacerbating existing societal bias. Additional provisions mandating that federal contractors only provide systems that are 鈥榝ree from top-down ideological bias鈥� may have downstream impacts on free speech, potentially censoring how AI can talk about race, gender, climate, or inequality. 鈥淲e urge the administration to immediately rescind these harmful and unlawful actions and ensure that states and the federal government have robust AI safeguards in place.鈥�

The 糖心Vlogand 糖心Vlogof Alaska have filed an amicus in support of Tupe Smith, a woman born in American Samoa who now lives in Whittier, Alaska charged with falsely affirming that she was a U.S. citizen when she registered to vote. But Tupe Smith is not an 鈥渁lien鈥� under the law. People, like her, born in the U.S. territory of American Samoa are the only remaining individuals recognized as 鈥渘on-citizen U.S. nationals,鈥� a unique status that falls short of 鈥渃itizen鈥� but nonetheless recognizes that American Samoa has been part of the United States for over 125 years.   All evidence indicates that Ms. Smith believed that, as a non-citizen U.S. national, she was eligible to vote in local elections when she registered to vote. In fact, local election officials encouraged her to check the box labeled "U.S. citizen" when she registered, given the fact that there was no option for "U.S. national."   Our amicus brief urges Alaska鈥檚 Court of Appeals to dismiss Tupe Smith鈥檚 indictment because of well-settled principles that election-crime statutes should be construed to avoid punishing innocent mistakes. Separately, we warn that upholding a different view of the law would make Alaska an outlier among the states.

Coalition on Homelessness is a challenge to the City and County of San Francisco鈥檚 efforts to criminalize homelessness through an array of unconstitutional practices, including confiscating and destroying the personal property of unhoused people without adequate notice or due process, and citing and arresting unhoused people for sleeping in public.

The National Institute of Health (NIH) abruptly cancelled millions of dollars in grants for research that it claims are related to 鈥済ender identity鈥� or 鈥渄iversity, equity and inclusion.鈥� The 糖心Vlogsued.