RTP's Fourth Branch Podcast

In this episode, Adam Thierer and Brent Skorup speak with Senator Mike Lee on the current state of drone regulation. The senator speaks to his proposal for a cooperative, federal solution to regulatory holdup in drone technology innovation.Additional Resources:Senator Lee's proposed Drone Integration and Zoning Act: https://www.lee.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2019/10/sen-lee-introduces-drone-integration-and-zoning-actBrent Skorup, "To Kickstart Drone Deliveries, Give Cities and States Regulatory Flexibility": https://www.mercatus.org/bridge/commentary/kickstart-drone-deliveries-give-cities-and-states-regulatory-flexibilityFeaturing:- Mike Lee, United States Senator, Utah- Brent Skorup, Senior Research Fellow, Mercatus Center, George Mason University- [Moderator] Adam Thierer, Senior Research Fellow, Mercatus Center, George Mason UniversityVisit our website – www.RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect with us on social media.

Last term in Gundy v. U.S., without Justice Kavanaugh the Court was split between a restoration of a substantial limitation on the administrative state and the status quo. In this case, as Justice Gorsuch described it, Congress gave “the nation’s chief prosecutor… the power to write his own criminal code governing the lives of a half-million citizens.” This case has enormous implications for how much power federal bureaucrats can be given by Congress. The panelists will discuss this case and a potential future without such extensive power for federal agencies.Featuring:Devin Watkins, Attorney, Competitive Enterprise InstituteModerator: Prof. Christopher J. Walker, Professor of Law, The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law Visit our website – www.RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect with us on social media.

With the conclusion of the Federal Trade Commission’s 21st Century Hearings, the agency is finalizing several reports concerning the state of competition in the US, vertical mergers, the consumer welfare standard, and privacy. This panel summarizes the issues the FTC explored in the hearings and discuss their views of potential FTC output. Featuring:- Maureen Ohlhausen, Partner, Baker Botts LLP and former FTC Acting Chairman- Duane Pozza, Partner, Wiley Rein LLP- Moderator: Svetlana Gans, Vice President and Associate General Counsel, NCTA — The Internet & Television AssociationVisit our website – www.RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect with us on social media.

In this episode, Paul Rubin, the world’s leading expert on cooperative capitalism, discusses his new book, The Capitalism Paradox: How Cooperation Enables Free Market Competition. Rubin explains how we should think about markets, economics, and business and makes a case that this book is an indispensable tool for understanding and communicating the vast benefits the free market bestows upon societies and individuals. Moderator Susan Dudley's review of the book may be read here.Featuring:- Prof. Paul H. Rubin, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Economics Emeritus, Emory University- Moderator: Prof. Susan Dudley, Director, GW Regulatory Studies Center & Distinguished Professor of Practice, Trachtenberg School of Public Policy & Public Administration, George Washington UniversityVisit our website – www.RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect with us on social media.

What happens when a state agency uses without authorization copyrighted videos and pictures of Blackbeard’s famous pirate ship, the Queen Ann’s Revenge? Is this an act of state-sanctioned piracy for which the copyright owner can sue for the violation of his rights, or is the state immune from such a lawsuit under its inherent sovereign immunity? This is the question that the Supreme Court will answer in Allen v. Cooper, with oral arguments scheduled for November 5, 2019.In this case, North Carolina argues that it is immune from any copyright infringement lawsuits given its state sovereign immunity under the 11th Amendment. Rick Allen maintains in his lawsuit that North Carolina is liable for its unauthorized use of his video footage and photographs of the Queen Ann’s Revenge given that Congress validly abrogated the state’s sovereign immunity in the Copyright Remedy Clarification Act (CRCA). In Allen v. Cooper, the Supreme Court will determine whether the CRCA was a valid statutory abrogation of North Carolina’s state sovereign immunity. In this teleforum, experts on varying sides of the issue will discuss the case and its impact on state officials and the use of copyrighted materials by state agencies and other institutions.Featuring:Michael Bynum, Editor, Epic SportsTerry Hart, VP, Legal Policy and Copyright Counsel, Copyright AllianceMatthew R. McGuire, Counsel, Hunton Andrews KurthVisit our website – www.RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect with us on social media.

With the advent of mobile devices, ubiquitous home laptop, tablet and iPad computers, content streaming and more, the need for wireless service is forever on the rise in the United States. Industry experts note that capacity limits are being stretched. With the arrival of the "Internet of Things," linking the internet with everything from nanny cams to home/office climate systems to autonomous vehicles, is there a clear and coherent path forward on the assignment or repurposing of spectrum? Perhaps as importantly, who has the authority and expertise to decide?Featuring:- Dean Brenner, Senior Vice President, Spectrum Strategy & Technology Policy at Qualcomm- Hilary Cain, Director (Group Manager), Technology and Innovation Policy, Toyota North America- Danielle Piñeres, Vice President & Associate General Counsel, NCTA- The Internet & Television Association- [Moderator] Prof. Christopher J. Walker, Professor of Law, The Ohio State University Moritz College of LawVisit our website – www.RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect with us on social media.

The Department of Labor administers and enforces more than 180 federal laws, with mandates and regulations that affect workplace activities for about 10 million employers and 125 million workers. Since its creation in 1913, DOL has been in the vanguard of the regulatory state.This episode, moderated by former Solicitor of Labor Gregory Jacob, features a discussion with Cheryl Stanton, head of DOL’s Wage and Hour Division, and Jonathan Berry, head of its regulatory policy shop, about how President Trump’s Department of Labor is stewarding the responsibilities that have been entrusted to its care.Featuring:- Jonathan Berry, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy, U.S. Department of Labor- Cheryl M. Stanton, Administrator, Wage and Hour Division, U.S. Department of Labor- [Moderator] Gregory Jacob, Partner, O'Melveny & Myers LLPVisit our website – www.RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect with us on social media.

In statutes such as the Federal Power Act and Clean Water Act, Congress divided responsibility for oversight of energy generation and transmission projects between federal agencies and the States. In recent years, several States have more aggressively used their perceived statutory and regulatory authority in furtherance of climate change goals, prompting litigation from affected parties and regulatory pushback from the Trump Administration. Our experts will discuss the most recent legal and regulatory skirmishes over the balancing of federal and state jurisdiction over energy policy, including: Judicial rejection of extended consideration of Section 401 certification requests; EPA proposed Clean Water Act regulations; State subsidies for power generation plants and renewable power mandates; and, State-issued rights of first refusal to incumbent utilities to build transmission lines.Featuring:- Gordon A. Coffee, Partner, Winston & Strawn LLP- Prof. Ari Peskoe, Lecturer on Law, Harvard Law SchoolVisit our website – www.RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect with us on social media.

Earlier in October, the D.C. Circuit issued its long-awaited opinion in Mozilla v. Federal Communications Commission in which the court largely upheld the Commission’s 2017 Restoring Internet Freedom Order that reversed the Obama Administration’s 2015 decision to apply common carrier regulation to the Internet. While the court upheld the bulk of the agency’s actions as reasonable under the Supreme Court’s rulings in Chevron and Brand X, the court also found that the agency lacked plenary preemption authority over state efforts to regulate the Internet under the FCC’s theory of the case. As such, this case does not mark the end of the net neutrality debate; instead, it simply closes one chapter and opens a new one.In this episode, a panel of legal and economic experts share their views of the court’s reasoning and of the implications of this case upon the on-going net neutrality debate.Featuring:- Russell P. Hanser, Partner, Wilkinson Barker Knauer, LLP- Prof. Daniel Lyons, Professor of Law, Boston College Law School- Dr. George S. Ford, Chief Economist, Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal & Economic Public Policy Studies- Moderator: Lawrence J. Spiwak, President, Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal & Economic Public Policy StudiesVisit our website – www.RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect with us on social media.