DOJ Joins xAI to Block Colorado AI Act Before June 30 Effective Date
The Justice Department's new AI Litigation Task Force has intervened in xAI's federal suit against Colorado SB 24-205, recasting the algorithmic-discrimination law as an Equal Protection violation weeks before it would otherwise bind every covered developer in the state.
The interesting move here is not the lawsuit, it is the pleading. xAI sued Colorado Attorney General Philip Weiser in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado on April 9, asking the court to enjoin enforcement of Senate Bill 24-205 before its June 30, 2026 effective date. The Department of Justice did not merely file an amicus brief — it intervened with its own complaint, alleging that the statute's mandate to mitigate disparate impacts on protected classes compels developers to engage in race- and sex-conscious model adjustments, and that this compulsion violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
That framing is the throughline back to the December 11, 2025 executive order that birthed the AI Litigation Task Force. The task force, formally announced via internal DOJ memorandum on January 9, was directed to challenge state AI laws on three grounds: dormant commerce clause violations, federal preemption, and "otherwise unlawful" conduct. The Colorado complaint is the first major test of the third prong, and it is being argued by attorneys consulting with the Special Advisor for AI and Crypto and the White House Counsel's office. The Department of Commerce supplied the referral that put SB 24-205 on the task force's docket.
Compliance counsel for AI vendors operating in Colorado now face a procedural fork. SB 24-205 imposes documentation, impact-assessment, and consumer-notice duties on developers and deployers of high-risk AI systems, with the AG as primary enforcer. The injunction motion is set to be argued before the effective date, but absent a TRO the law still binds on June 30. Vendors building toward that compliance deadline cannot pause implementation on the assumption that the DOJ will prevail.
Jenner & Block — DOJ Joins xAI in Lawsuit Challenging Colorado AI Act → · Barnes & Thornburg — DOJ Intervenes in Lawsuit Challenging Colorado's Algorithmic Discrimination Law → · BABL AI — U.S. Justice Department Forms AI Litigation Task Force to Challenge State Laws →