The Lawfare Podcast: Data Federalism

Jen Patja, Alvaro Marañon, Bridget Fahey
Friday, March 4, 2022, 12:00 PM

Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
Brookings

Over the past two decades, much of the public's attention has been focused on private markets for individual data, but another equally invasive and expansive market has emerged during this time. The public sector, composed of the federal government, states and cities, have created a substantially and rapidly expanding inter-governmental marketplace in individual data. It is used in areas ranging from policing and immigration, to public health and housing. But this exchange around individual data brings about serious concerns for both privacy and federalism.

Alvaro Marañon sat down with Bridget Fahey, a law professor at the University of Chicago Law School, to discuss her new law review article, “Data Federalism.” They go into detail about the hybrid structures governing these exchanges of individual data, the risk and protections afforded by existing federalism principles and doctrines, and how and why data is power.


Jen Patja is the editor and producer of the Lawfare Podcast and Rational Security. She currently serves as the Co-Executive Director of Virginia Civics, a nonprofit organization that empowers the next generation of leaders in Virginia by promoting constitutional literacy, critical thinking, and civic engagement. She is the former Deputy Director of the Robert H. Smith Center for the Constitution at James Madison's Montpelier and has been a freelance editor for over 20 years.
Alvaro Marañon is a former fellow in Cybersecurity Law at Lawfare. Alvaro is a graduate from the American University Washington College of Law and the University of New Hampshire.
Bridget Fahey is a law professor at the University of Chicago Law School, where she teaches constitutional law and contract law and co-coordinates the Public Law Workshop.

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