Even today's relatively primitive AIs are directly hurting people and ruining lives. They're largely unregulated and AI companies have ignored safety issues.

I'm late to the news that a cert petition has been filed in the US v. Chatrie geofence case. Thanks to Adam Unikowsky and the EDVA public defenders' office for the shout-outs. Fingers crossed for a grant. www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/25...

I recently came across this Ohio Court of Appeals case that adopts the Carpenter Test overtly - the first court to do so! (Hundreds of courts have used these factors informally.) Thank you to Judges Mental, Boggs, and Edelstein for their kind references to my work.

In a stunning reversal, the Senate voted 99-1 this morning to strip from Trump's big bill a 10-year moratorium on state-level AI regulations. Gift link to my story on how it happened and who's celebrating: wapo.st/3TOyiaG

The Senate Parliamentarian asks Senators to rewrite the proposed 10-year moratorium on state AI regulation. An important development that might limit the scope of this extremely wrongheaded provision. (It might also be removed by amendment because many Senators of both parties oppose it outright).

I hit 10,000 SSRN downloads today! Grateful to all my readers. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/...

The Supreme Court unanimously holds that a lawsuit can proceed against an FBI SWAT team for raiding the wrong house. www.scotusblog.com/cases/case-f...

Our new paper, Decentering Property in Fourth Amendment Law is now out in the U. Chicago Law Review! It argues that property concepts should be used very carefully, and very little, in modern Fourth Amendment law. lawreview.uchicago.edu/sites/defaul...

Our new paper, Decentering Property in Fourth Amendment Law is now out in the U. Chicago Law Review! It argues that property concepts should be used very carefully, and very little, in modern Fourth Amendment law. lawreview.uchicago.edu/sites/defaul...

I largely side with the Princeton School folks on AI timelines. I don't think supercapable AI is just around the corner. But I side with the AI 2027 folks on the need for robust regulation of this dangerous technology. We need more than these two viewpoints.

The Supreme Court grants Case v. Montana, on whether police need Probable Cause to enter a home for community caretaking purposes (i.e. to break up a fight or save a heart attack victim). Interesting case! It'll be nice to have clarity on the issue, whatever happens.

Timely book 👇

It's unclear just how many and how often police departments purchase sensitive private data. But intelligence agencies appear to be buying it regularly and on a massive scale.

@sjquinney.bsky.social law professor @mtokson.bsky.social talked to Sidebar co-host Amanda Pampuro about the challenges associated with regulating AI during its infancy. Sidebar by @courthousenews.bsky.social episode on AI: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

I appeared on the Sidebar podcast (at the 18 minute mark) to talk about frontier AI and the law, along with a bunch of tech folks, professors, and ChatGPT itself. Check it out here: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

I appeared on the Sidebar podcast to talk about frontier AI and the law, along with a bunch of tech folks, professors, and ChatGPT itself. Check it out here: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

Michael C. Pollack (@michaelcpollack.bsky.social) & Matthew Tokson (@mtokson.bsky.social) expose the flaws of property-centered Fourth Amendment law, showing how it can be manipulated, exclude digital privacy, and leave society’s most disadvantaged with the least protection.

Volume 92.3 is now live, featuring pieces by Conor Clarke & Henry Hansmann; @michaelcpollack.bsky.social & @mtokson.bsky.social; Adriana Z. Robertson, Pat Akey & Mikhail Simutin; and Aziz Huq. You can find them all here: lawreview.uchicago.edu.

I have a new piece in Lawfare on AI policing and how it facilitates authoritarianism. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-...

I'm delighted that my paper with @mtokson.bsky.social, Decentering Property in Fourth Amendment Law, is now officially out in the @uchilrev.bsky.social! Many thanks to friends and colleagues for valuable feedback and to the editors at Chicago for their work! lawreview.uchicago.edu/sites/defaul...

"By adapting the principles of the anti-authoritarian Fourth Amendment to the new frontier of AI law enforcement, legal actors can restrain the authoritarian effects of AI enforcement technologies," argues @mtokson.bsky.social. lawfaremedia.org/article/the-...

Thanks also to Judge Berner for catching that the claims that Google location history is off by default and that "two-thirds" of Google users decline location history are misleading or false. I've been pounding the table about this, e.g. here: www.dorfonlaw.org/2024/07/the-...

US v. Chatrie is out! The 4th Cir en banc manages come to no conclusions except that the good faith exception causes Chatrie to lose even if his rights were violated. Thank you to Judge Wynn for citing 3 of my recent articles in his opinion joined by 5 judges. www.ca4.uscourts.gov/opinions/224...

My new paper with Mike Gentithes on the Good Faith Exception is now out in the Georgetown Law Journal! It features the first large-scale empirical study of the exception and how courts use it. www.law.georgetown.edu/georgetown-l...

My new paper with Mike Gentithes on the Good Faith Exception is now out in the Georgetown Law Journal! It features the first large-scale empirical study of the exception and how courts use it. www.law.georgetown.edu/georgetown-l...

There's now solid empirical evidence for the claim that concern about existential AI risks doesn't distract from present-day AI harms. See also Arbel, Tokson, & Lin, 2024.

AI surveillance drastically lowers the costs of things like monitoring social media and deploying undercover agents in ways that Fourth Amendment law should respond to. Now is not the time to give law enforcement unchecked, authoritarianism-enabling power. www.404media.co/this-college...

One of the many problems with the trespass test is it motivates courts to hollow out the substance or (in this case) the remedies of the Fourth Amendment to compensate for its application to de minimis physical touching. See this paper for more examples: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

The Supreme Court has ordered the government to facilitate the return of Abredo Garcia from El Salvador. The opinion is here: www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...

“I want students to understand some of the ways AI is changing the law or raising unique legal issues and be a step ahead of the rest of the legal profession in being familiar with some of those issues.” Learn about Professor @mtokson.bsky.social's AI class!

If you like Veep and also enjoy British television, I cannot recommend “The Thick of It” enough. It’s a great show.

Yost’s complaint about how long it takes to carry out executions reminds me of a Jackson Clarion-Ledger editorial feature in the 1990s. It was a full-page spread of photos of the 40+ people on death row, how long they’d been there, and demands for “swifter justice.” 5 turned out to be innocent

New 9th Circuit computer search and seizure case has dropped, US v. Holcomb. To my mind, it demonstrates how courts are trying new ways to limit computer searches to avoid the implications of the existing plain view rule. Thread below. cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/op... #N

To criminal procedure litigants who'd like a favorable ruling on the good faith exception, may I suggest that you file something like the Fourth Amendment Scholar's Brief in Holcomb, based on Mike Gentithes and I's good faith exception scholarship: figshare.com/articles/pre...

Good news: "Unlikely Criminals" is now forthcoming in the Emory Law Journal! Looking forward to working with @emorylawjournal.bsky.social! 🥳

My new article, for a symposium at UPenn, is now up on SSRN. It's about Artificial Intelligence and the 4th Amendment. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... It makes 2 claims: 1) AI surveillance and policing facilitates authoritarianism. 2) Anti-authoritarian 4th Amendment theory can help address it.

My new article, for a symposium at UPenn, is now up on SSRN. It's about Artificial Intelligence and the 4th Amendment. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... It makes 2 claims: 1) AI surveillance and policing facilitates authoritarianism. 2) Anti-authoritarian 4th Amendment theory can help address it.

NEW: If the executive branch refuses to obey court orders, federal judges have a few ways to ensure compliance — and must exercise these options, Rutgers Law Professor @david.noll.org writes.

I'm maybe a week away from finally carving out time to read Orin's trespass article and then read his new book, and now there's another new piece?! Oh well, I'm still looking forward to reading it.

I couldn't agree more - @profferguson.bsky.social is one of the great contemporary Fourth Amendment scholars and this is an excellent hire.

I created a new AI law seminar class, and I'm highlighting a few readings from it each week. Week 9 features great pieces on the labor market impacts of AI: Artificial Intelligence, Automation, and Work, by @dacemoglumit.bsky.social and Pascual Restrepo nber.org/system/files... and...

I like this new paper from Danieli Evans, A Citizenship Model of the Fourth Amendment, now up on SSRN: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Look forward to publishing “State Constitutional Rights to Privacy” in the Georgia Law Review!

Progressive originalist arguments are generally worth making, strategically, but we should be clear-eyed about how little they're likely to accomplish on their own.

Military adoption of AI decisionmaking tools and automated weapons systems continues. www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

I created a new AI law seminar class, and I'm highlighting a few readings from it each week. Week 8 features great pieces on algorithmic sentencing: Evidence-Based Sentencing and the Scientific Rationalization of Discrimination by Sonja Starr repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcont... and...

I created a new AI law seminar class, and I'm highlighting a few readings from it each week. This week (Week 7), I'm featuring a few great articles on various topics. Such as: Algorithmic Contracts by Lauren Scholz law.stanford.edu/wp-content/u... and...

I created a new AI law seminar class, and I'm highlighting a few readings from it each week. Week 6 looks at algorithmic decisionmaking and discrimination, via great papers like: Playing with the Data by David Lehr and @paulohm.bsky.social lawreview.law.ucdavis.edu/archives/51/... and...

Thank you to Judge Jordan of the 11th Circuit for the citation. The idea that the government can point secret surveillance cameras at your home forever without a warrant is unsustainable under Carpenter. And it's inimical to 4th Amendment values.

Judge Jordan, concurring: We should rely on the good-faith exception and not reach the merits, as this is an uncertain area and we don't know what the Supreme Court might do with this issue. (cc @mtokson.bsky.social )