A Missoula AI server firm sues the city under Montana's Right to Compute Act over its data-centre zoning, the Goldwater Institute says

The Goldwater Institute and the Frontier Institute have sued the City of Missoula in Montana's Fourth Judicial District Court on behalf of Joshua Rhines, whose company is CubCloud AI, the Goldwater Institute says on a page dated 9 November. The suit challenges a data-centre zoning ordinance the city council adopted 10–2 on 5 October.

Goldwater says the ordinance makes it virtually impossible for CubCloud to provide services in Missoula, relies on a zoning classification that exists nowhere within the city limits, and ignores each facility's actual footprint, noise, light and energy use. The suit invokes Montana's Right to Compute Act, which Goldwater says requires government limits on computing resources to be “demonstrably necessary and narrowly tailored to fulfill a compelling government interest.”

“While aimed at big tech, the City of Missoula's onerous data center zoning harms little tech the most …” said Kendall Cotton, president and chief executive of the Frontier Institute. These are the plaintiffs' side's claims. The filing date and case number were not visible from here, and no response from the city was found.

• Claimed The Goldwater and Frontier institutes have sued Missoula in Montana's Fourth Judicial District Court over its data-centre zoning, on behalf of CubCloud AI's Joshua Rhines. Goldwater Institute
• Claimed The ordinance, adopted 10–2 on 5 October, makes it virtually impossible for CubCloud to provide services in Missoula, Goldwater says, and the suit invokes Montana's Right to Compute Act. Goldwater Institute