Congress
Just Security’s expert authors offer analysis of U.S. Congress’ role in national security, foreign affairs, the rule of law, and rights. Coverage includes analysis and informational resources related to the legislative process, oversight and investigations of the executive branch, and major debates on the separation of powers and Congress’ constitutional role.
2,468 Articles
Passing the Senate Gavels
Editors’ Note: The following post is the tenth installment of a new feature, “Monday Reflections,” in which a different Just Security editor will take an in-depth look…
Reauthorize the AUMF: Clever strategies to limit presidential power are constitutional, but unwise
Now that the Midterms elections are in the books, it should be possible to focus once again on an unresolved issue that has generated massive angst on both sides of the political…
The Problem With Legalism in the Surveillance State
Editor’s note: this post is a preview of ideas raised in an upcoming article by the author, Intelligence Legalism and the National Security Agency’s Civil Liberties Gap,…
A Cult of Rules: The Origins of Legalism in the Surveillance State
Editor’s note: this post is a preview of ideas raised in an upcoming article by the author, Intelligence Legalism and the National Security Agency’s Civil Liberties Gap,…
National Security Politics in the 114th Congress
Last September, I wrote a post exploring whether some of the congressional reactions to the Snowden disclosures might have been portents of a coming political realignment on national…
A Republican Senate Takeover Won’t Doom Surveillance Reform
Late on the evening of May 29, 2014, California Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D) called a small, bipartisan group of lawmakers to her office in the Longworth Building on the Capitol Hill campus.…
2014 Congressional Midterms and Surveillance Reform: Races to Watch
This is the first of two posts discussing the future of surveillance reform after the 2014 midterms. The second post is available here. The high water mark for NSA reforms in the…
The Article I argument in Zivotofsky
For over two centuries, federal courts have not had occasion to adjudicate whether and to what extent Congress has the power to regulate or supersede the President’s power…
A Big Week in Afghanistan War Oversight
It has been a busy week for John Sopko, the US-appointed Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). He and his team just published a number of reports indicating…
Time to Give the Sleeves From Our Vest and Acknowledge the Extraterritoriality of the Convention Against Torture
As David Luban noted yesterday evening, Charlie Savage of The New York Times reported that the Obama Administration likely plans to continue to espouse Bush-era positions on the…
Apple, Boyd, and Going Dark
Apple’s recent announcement that it will encrypt its newest iPhones is again pushing to the fore the question of whether the law should be updated to require companies to have…
Military Commissions After Guantánamo
This Wednesday morning at 9:30 (EDT), a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit (Henderson, Rogers, & Tatel, JJ.) will hear oral argument in al Bahlul v. United States–a Guantánamo…