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Today: The Senate Commerce Committee considers four bills this week that would expand age verification and restrict online speech (KOSA, SCREEN Act, CHATBOT Act, Youth AI Privacy Act). The FTC proposed a policy statement empowering the agency to judge AI output accuracy under the Trump administration's anti-woke AI executive order. A federal judge denied xAI's emergency request to block Minnesota's anti-nudify app law, citing the company's three-month delay in filing suit.
Discord Strengthens Teen Safety Features Amid Texas AG Lawsuit
Discord agreed to adopt enhanced age assurance and default safety protections for Texas users while continuing to defend against a lawsuit filed by the state attorney general accusing the messaging platform of putting children at risk. The agreement includes strengthened safety features but does not resolve the underlying litigation.
DOJ Drops Reflecting Pool Vandalism Charges, Admits Contractor Fault
The Department of Justice dismissed criminal charges against David Hearn, who was accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Reflecting Pool after President Trump's refurbishment. Lead prosecutor Jeanine Pirro admitted in the dismissal filing that defective workmanship by Atlantic Industrial Coatings (hired through a no-bid contract) caused the pool's sealant to fail, not vandalism. The government's own witness testified during grand jury proceedings that material Hearn grabbed from the pool resulted from defective workmanship, undermining the $1,000 damage threshold required for federal vandalism charges under 18 U.S.C. § 1361.
EFF Joins Comments Urging FTC to Withdraw AI Accuracy Policy Proposal
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, Public Knowledge, and Fight for the Future filed joint comments calling on the Federal Trade Commission to withdraw its proposed policy statement on "suppression of accuracy in artificial intelligence systems," which builds on President Trump's "Preventing Woke AI in the Federal Government" executive order. The organizations argued the proposal violates the First Amendment by installing the FTC as arbiter of truth in AI outputs, exceeds the agency's legal authority by claiming federal preemption over state AI laws like Colorado's automated decisionmaking statute, and creates vague standards enabling government jawboning of AI developers to censor speech. The FTC itself conceded "the exact line of what constitutes bias may be difficult to draw."
Federal Judge Denies xAI Emergency Motion to Block Minnesota Anti-Nudify Law
U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank denied xAI's motion for a temporary restraining order against Minnesota's anti-nudify app law, which took effect August 1, 2026. The law imposes $500,000-per-image strict liability for any "access, download, or use" of technology that creates non-consensual sexual imagery, with no safe harbor provisions. Judge Frank ruled the three-month delay between the law's signing and xAI's July 29 filing "suggests that harm is not immediate," despite the massive potential liability. The court ordered briefing on a preliminary injunction, with a hearing scheduled for August 19. xAI argued the law goes beyond non-consensual sexual imagery and could cover users editing photos of themselves with their own consent. Minnesota's Supreme Court had previously provided a roadmap for drafting similar laws to survive strict scrutiny, which the legislature did not follow.
Supreme Court Asked to Leave Mail-in Voting Executive Order Limits in Place
Lawyers for 23 states and the District of Columbia urged the Supreme Court to leave in place a lower court order barring the federal government from applying provisions of President Trump's March 31, 2026 executive order on mail-in voting to those states in November elections. The executive order requires DHS to create lists of adult U.S. citizens in each state, directs the Attorney General to prioritize prosecution of state and local officials who issue federal ballots to ineligible voters, and requires states using mail ballots to provide voter lists to USPS, which would bar USPS from transmitting ballots for voters not on enrolled lists. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani barred implementation before November 3, 2026, finding the order created a "direct and immediate dilemma" for states. The 1st Circuit declined to stay the order, noting neither the federal government nor the 12 defending states "defended the legality of the EO." Responses to the government's emergency stay request were due August 4, 2026 by 4 p.m. EDT.
Former Illinois House Speaker Appeals Corruption Conviction to Supreme Court
Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan asked the Supreme Court to review his corruption conviction and seven-year prison sentence under the federal program bribery statute. Madigan argued he did not act "corruptly" as required by statute, and that "the novel bribery theories the government zealously pursued against Speaker Madigan stretch federal bribery law in ways that threaten to criminalize and chill lawful interactions between state and local officials and their constituents." The case represents the latest in a line of elected officials challenging corruption convictions as prosecutions over legitimate politics.
$11M Hartford Premium Tax Charges Settlement, $70M Oppenheimer Cash Sweep Settlement
Talcott Resolution Life & Annuity Insurance Co. and Talcott Resolution Life Insurance Co. agreed to an $11 million class action settlement over excessive premium tax charges. Separately, Oppenheimer & Co. agreed to a $70 million class action settlement for participants in its Advantage Bank Deposit Program cash sweep program. The Oppenheimer settlement has a claim deadline of September 17, 2026.
Credit Reporting Agencies Sued Over Persistent Report Errors
A class action lawsuit alleges Equifax and Experian maintained credit report errors on three settled accounts even after the plaintiff disputed the inaccuracies and provided proof of payment. The suit names Synchrony and Midland as co-defendants and alleges violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act's dispute resolution and accuracy requirements.
Trump Administration Prioritizes Birth Tourism Prosecution
Following the Supreme Court's decision striking down President Trump's executive order limiting birthright citizenship, the Justice Department instructed U.S. attorneys' offices and the Criminal Division to prioritize prosecution of birth tourism schemes, where foreign nationals travel to the U.S. to give birth. Stepped-up enforcement could result in intense scrutiny of visa applicants and travelers to the U.S., and charges for people facilitating birth tourism, according to former consular officials and federal prosecutors.
Amazon Receives $600M in Trump Tariff Refunds After Supreme Court Ruling
Amazon announced on an earnings call that it received $600 million in tariff refunds after the Supreme Court ruled many of President Trump's tariffs were illegal. The company said it will pass the refunds along to some customers. Consumers filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court in Seattle in May, arguing they were owed refunds for paying tariff-inflated prices.
EFF and 18 Organizations Urge New York Governor to Veto Stealth Crawler Prohibition Act
The Electronic Frontier Foundation and 18 civil society organizations sent a letter to New York Governor Kathy Hochul urging her to veto Senate Bill 9934A, the Stealth Crawler Prohibition Act. The bill requires all web crawlers to disclose their identity and purpose, and grants media outlets authority to obtain judicial subpoenas to unmask unidentified automated web traffic without showing misconduct or injury. The organizations argued the bill "harms free expression and establishes a dangerous precedent by effectively deanonymizing and criminalizing automated access to the open web." Anonymous crawlers are used for investigative journalism (The Markup's Amazon anti-competitive practice investigation, ProPublica's price steering research), cybersecurity monitoring, and privacy tools like EFF's Privacy Badger. The bill targets anonymity rather than the technical issue of over-aggressive crawling that strains servers.
Senate Commerce Committee to Consider Four Age Verification Bills
The Senate Commerce Committee is poised to consider four bills that would require age verification and restrict online speech: the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), the SCREEN Act (S. 737), the CHATBOT Act, and the Youth AI Privacy Act. KOSA imposes a "duty of care" on online services to avoid exposing minors to harmful material, which only works if platforms know which users are minors, pushing platforms toward age verification or age estimation systems. The SCREEN Act requires online services to verify users' ages before accessing any sexually explicit content, with no requirement that a significant portion of the site consist of such content, applying to Netflix, Reddit, Discord, and Bluesky if they host any adult content. The bill specifically prohibits simple age attestation and targets VPN users by requiring age verification on traffic from known VPN addresses. The Youth AI Privacy Act requires AI companies to create kids-only privacy rules and implement "safe design features," but allows collection of minors' personal data for testing and addressing "harm to users" without clear definition. All four bills create constitutional problems under the First Amendment and privacy risks through mandatory data collection.
Anthropic Claude Chats Searchable on Google Due to User Sharing Settings
Google indexed publicly shared Claude chat conversations, exposing personal information including AI-powered therapy app code, meeting notes, medical billing dashboards, cryptocurrency wallet keys, and personal addresses. Anthropic stated the issue stems from user-controlled sharing settings: "We give people control over sharing their Claude conversations publicly, and in keeping with our privacy principles, we do not share chat directories or sitemaps with search engines like Google. These shareable links are not guessable or discoverable unless people choose to share them themselves. When someone shares a conversation, they are making that content publicly accessible, and like other public web content, it may be archived by third-party services." Users can prevent indexing by reviewing sharing settings.
Supreme Court Hears Arguments on Expanding Court to 13 Justices
Former Vice President and potential 2028 presidential candidate Kamala Harris expressed support for expanding the Supreme Court to 13 justices at the National Urban League's annual conference in Nashville. As vice president, Harris backed President Biden's proposed Supreme Court reforms including term limits, which did not include increasing the number of justices. Other potential 2028 contenders supporting court expansion include former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg (15-member court proposal from 2020 campaign) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
"Law Trapped in Amber" Metaphor Explodes in Constitutional Law
The Supreme Court's phrase from United States v. Rahimi - "a law trapped in amber" - appeared in six Supreme Court cases this term and hundreds of lower court opinions after Chief Justice Roberts used it to describe the Court's loosened Second Amendment analysis embracing "principles" and "common sense" rather than strict historical analysis. The metaphor originated with 1970s liberals Justice Thurgood Marshall and Judge Shirley Hufstedler, who used it to argue constitutional principles could evolve over time. By denying the law is "trapped in amber," the Court has indirectly embraced a form of living constitutionalism.
Age Verification Deadline: Monitor Senate Commerce Committee votes on KOSA, SCREEN Act, CHATBOT Act, and Youth AI Privacy Act. If any bill advances, platforms hosting adult content or serving minors must begin age verification implementation planning.
Oppenheimer ABDP Settlement Claims: Class members must submit claims by September 17, 2026 for the $70 million Advantage Bank Deposit Program settlement.
Minnesota Image-Editing Liability: Platforms offering image manipulation tools should assess Minnesota user exposure before the August 19 preliminary injunction hearing on the state's $500,000-per-image anti-nudify law.
FTC AI Accuracy Policy: AI developers should file comments or monitor the FTC's final action on the proposed AI accuracy policy statement before the comment deadline. Prepare for potential compliance conflicts between federal accuracy mandates and state AI laws like Colorado's automated decisionmaking statute.
Claude AI Sharing Settings Audit: Organizations using Claude or similar AI platforms should immediately audit employee training on conversation sharing settings and implement DLP policies prohibiting sharing of confidential information, credentials, or regulated data.
Credit Report Dispute Resolution: Credit reporting agencies and furnishers should audit FCRA dispute resolution procedures to ensure timely correction when consumers provide proof of payment or settlement, following the new Equifax/Experian class action.