Model Legislation: The Right To Compute Act
America’s Constitution confers extraordinarily strong protections for individual rights, including property and speech.
These protections are intentionally broad, grounded in the presumption that individuals are free to use their own property and express themselves without needing permission from the government.
The Right to Compute Act builds on this foundation by affirming that Montanans have the right to freely use their computational resources for lawful purposes such as computers, algorithms, software, and artificial intelligence, without excessive government interference. Just as the printing press has long been protected as a foundational tool of free speech, modern computational tools must also be recognized as protected in the digital age.
In practice, this means that any government action seeking to regulate or restrict lawful computational use should be subject to the highest level of constitutional protection, known as strict scrutiny. Under this standard, laws and regulations must:
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Serve a compelling government interest, and
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Be narrowly tailored to address an actual, demonstrable harm, and
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Be the least restrictive means of achieving that interest
By applying this standard, the Right to Compute Act sets the gold standard for protecting fundamental rights in the 21st century and ensures that states adopting it remain world-class destinations for individuals seeking to innovate.
Click here to download Right To Compute bill text
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