Last week, I was following up on several rumors that Donald Trump would sign an executive order that would fulfill a longstanding goal of the AI industry: legal preemption that would prevent states from passing their own AI laws. Mostly, I was calling sources trying to get a sense of how the Trump administration planned to approach it: Which agency would be spearheading it? What legal arguments would they use? How would it interact with Congress, which was trying to pass a similar moratorium in the National Defense Authorization Act?
And then I got a copy of the draft order itself — possibly a sign that someone in the administration deeply, deeply loathes David Sacks, Trump’s Special Advisor on AI and Crypto. Even though he’s not a permanent government employee — he is, in fact, a billionaire tech venture capitalist with a provisional employment status similar to the one Elon Musk previously held — Sacks has become deeply influential in setting the administration’s AI and crypto policies. (Just look at Trump’s recent statements about federal AI preemption.)
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An EO can prevent states from passing laws?
I find that hard to believe.
Short answer: no
An EO can prevent states from passing laws?
Federal laws and regulations preempt state laws and regulations.
An EO by itself cannot prevent states from passing laws. The President doesn’t make laws.
What he can do is choose an interpretation of an existing law which creates a federal regulation on AI (likely through the FCC), preventing states from regulating them.
He can try.
Each of the fifty states literally has its own legal system, which are as a rule very particular about the separation of powers.
If Trump signs an EO directing the FCC to declare AI a.“telecommunications” product.that states aren’t allowed to regulate, there’d be that same week ten to fifty lawsuits by the states asserting that the EO was unconstitutional and had zero effect.
What the AI oligarchs want is for the FCC to decide this on their own without an EO, or for Congress to pass a law. (Although Scotus has made noises about lifting what can be done without Congress in other areas …)
Pieces of shit
