United States of America: United States Department of Justice intervened in lawsuit challenging algorithmic discrimination regulation in Consumer Protections for Artificial Intelligence Act (SB24-205)

On 24 April 2026, the United States Department of Justice filed a complaint in intervention before the United States District Court for the District of Colorado in a lawsuit filed by X.AI LLC on 9 April 2026 against the Colorado Attorney General, challenging Colorado's Consumer Protections for Artificial Intelligence Act (SB24-205). The Law was enacted in May 2024 and is scheduled to enter into force on 30 June 2026. The Law requires developers and deployers of high-risk AI systems making consequential decisions affecting Colorado residents across education, employment, financial services, healthcare, housing, insurance, and legal services to take reasonable care to prevent foreseeable algorithmic discrimination. Algorithmic discrimination is defined as differential treatment or impact based on protected characteristics including age, colour, disability, ethnicity, genetic information, national origin, race, religion, reproductive health, sex, and veteran status. Compliance obligations include annual impact assessments, risk management programmes, disclosures to the Colorado Attorney General, and consumer-facing notices. The Law expressly excludes from the definition of algorithmic discrimination the use of AI for the sole purpose of increasing diversity or redressing historical discrimination. The Justice Department raised 2 constitutional objections under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Firstly, the Justice Department contends that requiring developers and deployers to monitor and correct statistical disparities in AI outputs in the absence of any judicial finding of discrimination effectively compels race, sex, and religion-conscious calibration of AI models. Secondly, the Justice Department contends that the Law's express exemption for diversity- and redress-oriented AI use itself constitutes intentional differential treatment unsupported by evidence of past discrimination in the AI sector and incompatible with constitutional scrutiny. The Justice Department seeks a declaration that SB24-205 is unconstitutional and a permanent injunction against its enforcement.