States can—and should—regulate AI in criminal justice

American criminal justice agencies are rapidly adopting artificial intelligence tools, shaping how we are surveilled, arrested, charged, and sentenced. These tools promise to improve safety, accountability, and fairness. Yet most tools have never been independently validated, and the harms they can cause are not hypothetical. Studies have shown these algorithms carry the risk of discrimination, and we’ve already seen wrongful arrests, unconstitutional surveillance, and the deprivation of liberty based on unreliable or improperly deployed AI tools. In this moment, state legislatures are the natural—and necessary—actors to set guardrails that harness AI’s genuine potential while protecting civil rights and public safety. But a recent executive order from President Donald Trump threatens to chill essential avenues of state-level regulation through legally dubious tactics, including Justice Department lawsuits, funding threats, and claims of federal preemption. Those claims rest on shaky legal ground, and should not deter states from acting.