Publications

Data centers are terrific assets to a community or region. But this pace of construction won’t last forever. Eventually the buildout will crest, capital will become more selective, technology will become more efficient, and the gold rush will dwindle. And if you missed out, you missed out, and you’ll probably regret it.

Congress spent decades transferring legislative and judicial powers to supposedly independent agencies. That was a violation of the nondelegation doctrine, but that’s another topic. Now, after the administrative state has accrued enormous powers, the court has given the president total control.

The constitutional answer is not to deny that the president controls the executive branch. The answer must be for Congress to reclaim the powers it should never have delegated.

Why can’t Republicans and Democrats work together to solve problems? If you want your representatives to fight for you and destroy those who disagree with you, I’m sorry, but consider the possibility that you’re the problem.

Data centers pay for their electricity. They pay for their water. And AI should pay for its content inputs, too.

How can it possibly be ethical for a president to sue an agency he completely controls, and negotiate a settlement with an attorney general he appointed? That’s not a negotiation between adversarial parties—that’s a sweetheart deal—especially since Trump was not going to win any of those lawsuits or claims on their merits.

Now that you know what is really in the SAVE America Act, does it strike you as more important than anything else Congress could possibly be doing? It is worth ending the filibuster over?

Or is it possible that this is mostly an unnecessary intrusion on federalism designed to satisfy a president’s private obsession?

It was always unlikely that the Court was going to issue a sweeping decision overturning the prevailing interpretation of the 14th Amendment, because of the two axes we described earlier.

It’s important to remember that the Supreme Court is never the final say on any matter of controversy. The political process always has the final say. The political process can make, change or eliminate laws; amend the Constitution; elect the people who nominate and confirm Supreme Court justices; and in extreme circumstances, even impeach justices. Only the Court itself has asserted that it has the final say on constitutional issues.

Auction revenue matters, but it should not be the final determinant of spectrum policy. If policymakers want the connected economy to keep working for consumers, homes, businesses and innovators, they must continue making the world safe for Wi-Fi.

The real problem is big government. The bigger the government, the more opportunities there are for fraud.

That’s why at IPI we argue for limited government, not better government. Better government is nice, sure, but also not very likely.

Between June 2024 and June 2025, there were 15,540 reported theft and vandalism incidents targeting America's communications networks, disrupting service for more than 9.5 million customers. Nearly 9,800 occurred in the first half of 2025 alone, double the previous six months. This is an accelerating crime wave.