Communications Daily Quoted Gus Hurwitz on AI Boom and Future of FCC/FTC Authorities
ICLE Director of Law & Economics Programs Gus Hurwitz was quoted in the Communications Daily article on discussions at the Silicon Flatirons conference about the AI investment boom, comparisons to past tech bubbles, and a legal debate over presidential authority and the future independence of agencies like the FCC and FTC. Read the full article here.
Gus Hurwitz, senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Technology, Innovation & Competition, said Trump’s position is that independent agencies are making political decisions, and they should be accountable to the president. If the policy fights aren’t based on technical expertise, maybe decisions should be made “in the political domain,” he said.
Humphrey’s Executor, a unanimous Supreme Court ruling in 1935 that limited the ability of presidents to fire independent commissioners, is “dead precedent walking,” Hurwitz said. There’s little question that the court will limit that precedent when it decides a case on the firing of FTC Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, he said. The only question is “how and on what grounds.”