Austin Mooney
austinjmooney.bsky.social
Austin Mooney
@austinjmooney.bsky.social
Privacy & security attorney. Tech, law, politics. Views mine etc. etc.
1 weird trick class action firms are using to get around PRA bans
Private Law Firms Are Quietly Powering State Privacy Enforcement (via Passle)
A quiet shift with major consequences is underway in consumer protection enforcement. Across the country, we are seeing states file headline-grabbing la...
technologylaw.fkks.com
July 30, 2025 at 6:43 PM
Interesting writeup. I haven't found a use for AI in my practice, but I think the answer is more clearly "yes"--lawyers can use AI without waiving privilege. Just need to adhere to same confidentiality as other law firm IT by, e.g., ensuring AI providers don't train models using privileged info.
Does Attorney-Client Privilege Survive When AI Listens?
Discover how using AI tools in legal workflows may jeopardize attorney-client privilege and what steps can help preserve confidentiality.
www.zwillgen.com
July 22, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Reposted by Austin Mooney
Senate lawmakers have removed from the budget bill what would've been a years-long restriction on state-level AI regulations: www.reuters.com/legal/govern...
US Senate strikes AI regulation ban from Trump megabill
The Republican-led U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to remove a 10-year federal moratorium on state regulation of artificial intelligence from President Trump's sweeping tax-cut and spending bill.
www.reuters.com
July 1, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Dinner with a view #biglaw
June 11, 2025 at 12:12 AM
Reposted by Austin Mooney
Just in: A federal judge rules against Trump’s attempted purge of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, saying the firings of Travis LeBlanc and Ed Felten were illegal. The court voids the firings and orders the members be reinstated. 70 PAGES: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
May 21, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Reposted by Austin Mooney
Cato has published my comprehensive review of the ~240 Venezuelans the US government renditioned 2 months ago to Salvador’s notorious prison. We identified FIFTY who came legally, never violated any immigration law, but are imprisoned at the US government’s request and at US taxpayer expense.
May 19, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Reposted by Austin Mooney
NEW: As the Trump admin is flying Afrikaners here today to be resettled as "refugees," @Sec_Noem is terminating Temporary Protected Status for Afghanistan — meaning they may start deporting women and allies who protected our troops to the Taliban to be persecuted or killed!
May 12, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Reposted by Austin Mooney
The most daming claim in this statement IMO:

Within 15 minutes of DOGE accounts being created…
Attackers in Russia tried logging in using those new creds.
Correct usernames and passwords.

2 options here. The DOGE device was hacked. And I don't think I need to explain the 2nd.
April 18, 2025 at 12:12 AM
Have had this quote in the home office for years, mostly as a gag. Hits different these days
April 16, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Reposted by Austin Mooney
These are both one-sided reports, so caution is warranted. But now there are two reports, a week apart, of U.S. lawyers stopped at the border in which border agents wanted access to their phones.

(1) 4/7/25
freep.com/story/news/l...

(2) 4/15/25
nbcnewyork.com/news/nationa...
April 16, 2025 at 4:00 PM
IRS sharing legally protected data with DHS is a major privacy scandal that raises the question: what other surveillance laws are currently being flouted that we don’t know about? www.nytimes.com/2025/04/08/u...
Top I.R.S. Officials Said to Resign After Deal to Give ICE Migrants’ Data
The agreement is a major departure from the Internal Revenue Service’s previous stance encouraging migrants to file their taxes.
www.nytimes.com
April 9, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Reposted by Austin Mooney
Board Member Mactaggart reiterates his longstanding concerns about overstepping statutory authority, litigation risks to the agency, and the cost of the regulations. He brought a motion to pause the rulemaking and have the new Executive Director study the legal risks and costs of the rulemaking.
April 4, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Reposted by Austin Mooney
40% of U.S.-affiliated Nobel Prize winners in the sciences — physics, chemistry and medicine — between 2000 and 2023 were immigrants.
www.axios.com/2025/03/31/u...
American progress in peril
As the U.S.'s global lead is contested and competition for the world's top talent gets stiffer, the Trump administration is disrupting the system that has propelled the country.
www.axios.com
March 31, 2025 at 10:53 AM
Reposted by Austin Mooney
We should all be terrified to live in an America where legal residents can be detained, held at gunpoint, or deported because of the color of their skin or because the President disagrees with their views.
March 28, 2025 at 2:16 PM
If you ever wondered what SCOTUS thinks about the trolley problem:
BREAKING: The Supreme Court, on a 7-2 vote, says that doing nothing can mean that you have done something. An "omission," Thomas writes for the court, can be the "use of physical force" and, hence, a "crime of violence."

Gorsuch, joined by Jackson, dissents.
March 21, 2025 at 5:54 PM
Reposted by Austin Mooney
The firing of the 2 Democratic FTC Commissioners will surely be a topic in my conversation with Max Schrems next Tues, 3/25, 2 PM ET. Register here: teachprivacy.com/webinar-gdpr... @maxschrems.bsky.social (noyb)
Webinar: GDPR Enforcement, Trump 2.0, and Max Schrems
GDPR Enforcement, Trump 2.0, and Max Schrems March 25, 2025, at 2 PM ET In this webinar, Professor Daniel Solove will discuss with Max Schrems the future
teachprivacy.com
March 18, 2025 at 10:13 PM
Interesting question: couldn’t FTC Commissioners Slaughter and Bedoya just keep showing up for work? Precedent for it seems pretty clear.
March 18, 2025 at 9:39 PM
…aaand Bedoya was fired.
Major implications for US federal privacy enforcement if (big if) these removals survive legal challenge. FTC commissioners are subject to the same “for cause” removal provisions that Trump is flouting here. The case they would have to overturn—Humphrey’s Executor—is a case about the FTC.
npr.org NPR @npr.org · Jan 28
UPDATE: President Trump fired two Democratic EEOC commissioners and an NLRB board member, hobbling two independent agencies that are tasked with enforcing worker protections.
March 18, 2025 at 9:31 PM
Reposted by Austin Mooney
BIG: FTC commissioner says he was just illegally fired by President Trump. x.com/bedoyaftc/st...
March 18, 2025 at 9:22 PM
Reposted by Austin Mooney
NEW: Judge Beryl Howell GRANTS TRO enjoining sections 1, 3, and 5 of Trump EO targeting law firm Perkins Coie
Addressing Risks from Perkins Coie LLP
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1. Purpose. The
www.whitehouse.gov
March 12, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Reposted by Austin Mooney
With his permission, I'm sharing Dean Treanor's response to Ed Martin's letter:
March 6, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Reposted by Austin Mooney
The Trump admin says ICE has custody of migrants sent to Guantanamo, but it's DOD guards in Camp 6, a war-on-terror prison. It won't say who is being held incommunicado there, but we are publishing a list of 53 men in Camp 6.
w/ @carolrosenbergnyt.bsky.social
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/u...
Some Migrants Sent by Trump to Guantánamo Are Being Held by Military Guards
The Times has obtained a list of 53 Venezuelan men the Trump administration has put in a wartime prison built to hold Al Qaeda suspects.
www.nytimes.com
February 13, 2025 at 2:23 AM
Reposted by Austin Mooney
Trump DOJ confirms they will ask SCOTUS to overrule Humphrey’s Executor rather than defend independent agencies / multi member commissions like the FTC, etc.

(So they’re arguing Trump can fire the boards and commissioners that lead these agencies)
This is a big deal. The DOJ will no longer defend for cause removal protections for commissioners of agencies like the FTC, removing a barrier to the President firing minority commissioners at will
February 13, 2025 at 12:00 AM