This week, the National Constitution Center and the National Association of Attorneys General hosted a bipartisan conversation with Attorneys General Doug Peterson of Nebraska and Phil Weiser of Colorado exploring the role of state attorneys general, state law, and state police powers under the Constitution in addressing the potential dangers of various social media platforms to public health, privacy, and competition. Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderated.
This program is presented in partnership with the Center for Excellence in Governance at the National Association of Attorneys General.
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This episode was produced by Tanaya Tauber, John Guerra, and Melody Rowell. It was engineered by Greg Scheckler and Dave Stotz. Research was provided by Sam Desai, Lana Ulrich, and Colin Thibault.
Participants
Doug Peterson serves as the 32nd Attorney General of the State of Nebraska. Following law school, Attorney General Peterson spent two years serving as a district attorney of Lincoln County. From 1988 to 1990, he served as assistant attorney general to the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office. And in 1990, he entered private practice, where he had the opportunity to advise and advocate for both individuals and businesses until his 2014 election as Attorney General.
Phil Weiser serves as the 39th Attorney General of the State of Colorado. Before running for office, Attorney General Weiser was the Hatfield Professor of Law and Dean of the University of Colorado Law School, where he founded the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship. He has served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the U.S. Department of Justice and as Senior Advisor for Technology and Innovation in the Obama Administration’s National Economic Council. Attorney General Weiser has also served on President Obama’s Transition Team and in President Bill Clinton’s Department of Justice as senior counsel to the Assistant Attorney General.
Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the U.S. Constitution. Rosen is also professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.
Additional Resources
- Adam Liptak, The New York Times, "Supreme Court Blocks Texas Law Regulating Social Media Platforms"
- Colorado Attorney General: Press Release, "Attorney General Phil Weiser says antitrust enforcement at a critical juncture as modern market forces push antitrust law into new territory"
- Colorado Attorney General: Press Release, "The Scalia/Ginsburg Initiative"
- Nebraska Attorney General: Press Release, “AG Peterson Joins Coalition Of 44 Attorneys General Urging Facebook To Abandon Launch Of Instagram Kids”
- Nebraska Attorney General: Press Release, “Attorney General Peterson Joins Nationwide Investigation into TikTok”
- The Social Dilemma, dir. Jeff Orlowski-Yang (2020)
- Phil Weiser, The Daily Sentinel, "We the people must rebuild our democracy"
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