Supreme Court Upholds Law Disarming Domestic Abusers | Far-Right Militias Are Back | AI Is Exhausting the Power Grid, and more

The case decided Friday, United States v. Rahimi, asked whether a Texas man could be prosecuted under federal law making it a crime for people subject to domestic violence restraining orders to possess guns. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the majority in the 8-to-1 decision, said that the answer was yes and that Second Amendment rights have limits.

AI Is Exhausting the Power Grid. Tech Firms Are Seeking a Miracle Solution.  (Evan Halper and Caroline O’Donovan, Washington Post)
The mighty Columbia River has helped power the American West with hydroelectricity since the days of FDR’s New Deal. But the artificial intelligence revolution will demand more. Much more.
So near the river’s banks in Central Washington, Microsoft is betting on an effort to generate power from atomic fusion — the collision of atoms that powers the sun — a breakthrough that has eluded scientists for the past century. Physicists predict it will elude Microsoft, too.
The tech giant and its partners say they expect to harness fusion by 2028, an audacious claim that bolsters their promises to transition to green energy but distracts from current reality. In fact, the voracious electricity consumption of artificial intelligence is driving an expansion of fossil fuel use — including delaying the retirement of some coal-fired plants.
In the face of this dilemma, Big Tech is going all in on experimental clean-energy projects that have long odds of success anytime soon. In addition to fusion, they are hoping to generate power through such futuristic schemes as small nuclear reactors hooked to individual computing centers and machinery that taps geothermal energy by boring 10,000 feet into the Earth’s crust.
Tech companies had promised “clean energy would be this magical, infinite resource,” said Tamara Kneese, a project director at the nonprofit Data & Society, which tracks the effect of AI and accuses the tech industry of using “fuzzy math” in its climate claims.
“Coal plants are being reinvigorated because of the AI boom,” Kneese said. “This should be alarming to anyone who cares about the environment.”

Far-Right Militias Are Back  (Leah Feiger, Wired)
Far-right extremists and their militias are back, and just like in 2020, they’re organizing online in a very brazen way. WIRED reporter, David Gilbert has been talking to Jake Lang, one of the people charged after the January 6th Capitol riot, and while he’s been incarcerated, Lang has organized a pro-gun nationwide militia on Telegram, the Encrypted Messaging Act.

OIG: Improvements to Asylum Seeker & Noncitizen Screening Required by DHS  (Rob Phillimore, HSToday)
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently released a report detailing how and why the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) needs to make improvements to the way it screens asylum seekers and noncitizens applying for admission into the United States.
The report indicates that DHS’s technology, procedures and coordination are not fully effective for screening and vetting non citizens applying for admission into the U.S., nor asylum seekers with applications pending for an extended period.
Through its audit, the OIG uncovered four significant challenges that must be addressed in order to reduce the risk of dangerous or potentially dangerous individuals entering or remaining in the United States.