STATES OF PLAY: Tennessee Sets Model for Battling AI Music Fakes

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A new Tennessee law aimed at protecting musicians’ voices from being replicated by artificial intelligence provides a blueprint for other states to confront AI abuses, but it may create tension with the First Amendment. Also on the free speech front, some blue and red states are testing First Amendment rights with laws that seek to limit employers’ communications with their workers on certain issues.

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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Tennessee‘s ELVIS Act codifies a right to control commercial exploitation of one’s voice if it’s recognizable and attributable to a particular person—which goes beyond the state’s prior right of publicity law that prohibits exploitation of celebrities’ voices. The new law also creates liability for anyone who “makes available” tools whose “primary purpose” is replicating an individual’s voice or image without authorization, but its extensive reach seems primed to test the bounds of free speech. “It’s hard to know what the limits on the right might be,” intellectual property law professor Stacey Dogan of Boston University said of the law. (Bloomberg Government)

LABOR & EMPLOYMENT

Some blue states like Washington are moving to ban “captive audience” meetings that employers use to counter-message against union organizers, while businesses’ workplace diversity trainings are being targeted in Florida and other red states. Both types of laws are teeing up legal fights over employers’ First Amendment rights. A federal appeals court recently ruled that part of Florida’s diversity training restrictions violate employers’ free speech rights. Federal courts will soon have a chance to consider similar concerns regarding “captive audience” bans. (Bloomberg Government)

The US Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s new “walkaround rule” lets non-employees accompany and advise OSHA officials during workplace safety and health inspections. It gives the 27 states that have their own worker safety programs—such as California, Michigan, South Carolina, and Wyoming—six months to enact similar requirements. (Bloomberg Government)

Maryland lawmakers gave final approval to a bill that would require businesses to include salary ranges in job ads. Six states already have pay range mandates, and similar measures are pending in Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, and New Jersey. (Bloomberg Government)

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly (D) signed a bill that exempts active duty military service members and their spouses from the state’s occupational licensing, registration, and certification fees. (Kansas Reflector)

BUDGET & TAX

Kentucky lawmakers gave final approval to a legislative package that would raise taxes on some corporations, reduce compliance burdens for some small businesses, and offer a limited tax amnesty program for delinquent taxpayers. (Bloomberg Government)

NFL stars Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce are throwing their weight behind a Jackson County, Missouri ballot measure that would raise as much as $2 billion of taxpayer money for two stadiums. A recent poll showed voters to be deadlocked on the measure. (Bloomberg Government)

The Kansas Republican-led legislature is scrambling to find agreement over how to cut income taxes and fund other major priorities like disability services and immigration enforcement. Most measures that don’t pass this week won’t be considered when lawmakers return on April 29 for a short wrap-up session. (Associated Press)

HOUSING

A company that carried out a land-buying spree on behalf of billionaires trying to build a sustainable city in northern California won a ruling advancing its lawsuit, which accuses landowners in the project’s target area of a conspiracy to drive up prices. (Bloomberg Government)

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

A Maryland judge struck down a landmark 2023 state law that scrapped a time limit for people sexually abused as children to sue perpetrators and any institutions that enabled the abuse. The ruling diverges from two other state circuit court decisions that upheld the law. (Baltimore Sun)

HEALTH

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) vetoed a bill aimed at addressing the state’s physician shortage in rural areas by letting mid-level providers like nurse practitioners prescribe certain drugs. (KOSU)

GUN POLICY

The US Supreme Court is being asked to block enforcement of a New York City gun licensing scheme that requires applicants to show good moral character. (Bloomberg Government)

SOCIAL POLICY

New York lawmakers are considering whether to include a repeal of the state’s adultery law in the state budget. (New York Times)

ESG

Louisiana Republicans have filed several bills targeting public libraries. One would ban public employees from spending state funds with the American Library Association, while another would remove exceptions for public and school libraries from the state’s obscenity law. (Louisiana Illuminator)

ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT

A nonprofit is suing Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D), state agencies, and crypto and power companies over alleged pollution stemming from mining cryptocurrency. (Bloomberg Government)