Trump Administration’s Challenge to CO’s AI Law & More

Trump Administration Joins Challenge to CO’s AI Law

On April 24, the U.S. Department of Justice joined a lawsuit brought by Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, seeking to block Colorado’s Anti-Discrimination in AI Act from going into effect. The law, passed in 2024 (SB 205) and scheduled to take effect on June 30, was the first comprehensive statute regulating algorithmic discrimination enacted in the United States. It imposes disclosure and risk-mitigation requirements on developers of “high‑risk” AI systems involved with decision-making in education, employment, financial services, healthcare and housing.

In its initial challenge to the law, filed on April 9, xAI argued that an AI model is a form of expression protected by the First Amendment and that the Colorado law impinges on that freedom. The DOJ’s filing added a different constitutional argument, based on the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause: that the law forces AI companies to make decisions on the basis of race, sex and religion.

The Colorado law provides an exemption for AI tools that advance diversity or compensate for historical discrimination. The DOJ argues that this carveout is an unconstitutional double standard, allowing discrimination for some but not others.

The administration’s action is consistent with others it has taken since January 2025 challenging diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives as a form of discrimination themselves. It also represents the administration’s first formal challenge to a state AI law since President Trump issued an executive order in December threatening legal action against state AI regulation. (HUMAN RESOURCES DIRECTOR, REUTERS)

Maine Gov Blocks Data Center Moratorium

Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) vetoed a bill (HB 207) that would have made her state the first in the nation to impose a moratorium on data center development. If she’d signed the measure, it would have frozen approvals for new data centers requiring more than 20 megawatts of power until October 2027 and authorized a council of government officials, experts and other stakeholders to develop plans for future data centers. In a letter to state lawmakers, Mills said she supports a temporary freeze on data centers and would have signed HB 207 if it had included an exemption for a $550 million data center project in the town of Jay that’s expected to provide at least 100 high-paying jobs. (INSURANCE JOURNAL)

—Compiled by SNCJ Managing Editor KOREY CLARK

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