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.
2,544 Articles
Inspectors General Information Access Complaints
Earlier this week, 47 Inspectors General (IGs) across the federal government signed a letter to congressional oversight committees complaining about impediments to access to information…
Judge Bates (Unintentionally) Makes the Case for FISC Reform
Whatever one thinks of the Senate version of the USA FREEDOM Act–which offers a series of substantive and procedural reforms to U.S. surveillance programs–it is now…
“Techniques that I believe and I think any fair-minded person would believe were torture”: Redacted CIA report summary now in the hands of the SSCI–What next? [UPDATED]
[UPDATED August 2] The President announced yesterday that the Executive branch has now provided to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence a partially declassified version…
Road Map II: Legal Avenues to Prosecute a US Citizen for War Crimes—The Case of Gotabaya Rajapaksa
This is the second post arising out of a presentation I made at a congressional briefing earlier this month on issues of accountability in Sri Lanka. The analysis below is also…
Sen. Leahy’s Latest NSA Bill: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
This morning, Senator Patrick Leahy released a new version of the USA Freedom Act, a bill intended to reform NSA surveillance following Edward Snowden’s revelations that the…
Senator Leahy Introduces Updated Version of the USA FREEDOM Act
This morning, Senator Leahy (D-Vt) introduced an updated version of the USA FREEDOM Act (full text). If you recall, in May, the House passed a version of the USA FREEDOM Act…
A Last Word on Lisa Monaco and AUMF Reform
In light of various offline comments, and Ben’s latest Lawfare post, let me briefly elaborate upon my post from this morning with respect to Saturday’s remarks by…
Overreading Lisa Monaco on AUMF Reform
Over at Lawfare, Bobby Chesney, Jack Goldsmith, Matt Waxman, and Ben Wittes have posted a reaction to a Josh Gerstein story in Politico, which was itself reporting on remarks…
Why (Some) Secrecy is Good for Civil Liberties
A few weeks back, Ben Wittes wrote a controversial post over at Lawfare on the latest Snowden disclosures, arguing that, “If you’re okay with dumping in the lap of a journalist…
Would the USA Freedom Act End All Authorities for Bulk Collection?
When the House passed the USA Freedom Act (H.R. 3361) in May, both Members and the administration announced that it would end bulk collection of metadata about Americans’…
What’s Left of Hamdan II? Quite a Lot, Actually…
Although it’s a bit further into the weeds than the issues Marty and I flagged in yesterday’s lengthy analysis of the en banc D.C. Circuit’s decision in al…
al Bahlul and the Future of “Domestic Law-of-War Offenses” in Military Commissions
As Steve wrote on Monday, the long-awaited en banc decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in al Bahlul v. United States leaves unanswered many of the questions…