DOJ Launches Task Force to Challenge State AI Regulations

WASHINGTON, Jan. 14, 2025 –The Justice Department established a new AI litigation task force on Friday in accordance with President Donald Trump’s executive order to create a national artificial intelligence framework. 

The directive came from the order Trump signed on Dec. 11 which sought to bolster federal authority over state AI policy, and mobilize federal agencies to enforce compliance. 

In a memorandum issued Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote that the new task force’s “sole responsibility shall be to challenge state AI laws inconsistent with the policy.”

The DOJ memo emphasized that it is “the policy of the United States to sustain and enhance the United States’ global AI dominance through a minimally burdensome national policy framework for AI.”

The order gave Bondi just 30 days to stand-up the new task force.

Six days following the executive order, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., introduced a bill to counter the effort. The States’ Right to Regulate AI Act would block the use of federal funds to comply with Trump’s AI order. Markey also filed the proposal as an amendment to an upcoming Senate appropriations package. 

It remains to be seen which state policies the federal government will consider “burdensome,” but at least 38 states now have laws on the books addressing issues such as AI accountability, transparency, and bias mitigation. 

In signing the order, Trump framed the effort as a matter of geopolitical and technological competition. “There’s only going to be one winner here," Trump said during the Oval Office signing, "And that’s probably going to be the U.S. or China. And right now, we’re winning by a lot.”

He also linked the order to a broader effort to speed permitting for AI data centers and their power supplies, saying firms will be allowed to build their own electricity generation and will receive “rapid approvals” from the federal government.

“If they had to get 50 different approvals from 50 different states, you could forget it," Trump said. “All you need is one hostile actor and you wouldn’t be able to do it.”