Courts & Litigation
Just Security’s expert authors offer analysis and informational resources on key litigation impacting national security, rights, democracy, and the rule of law. Our content spans domestic and international litigation, from cases at the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, and other international and regional tribunals, to those in U.S. courts involving executive branch actions, transnational litigation, and more.
2,932 Articles

Barr and Congress: Is the Focus on Criminality Too Narrow?–Five Experts Weigh In
The Senate Judiciary Committee’s questioning of Attorney General William Barr yesterday raises the question of whether Congress, in responding to the findings in Special Counsel…

Barr to Senate: President is Not Immune from Prosecutor Declaration of Indictable Offense
"Mueller may now be able to say on the record whether he believes President Donald Trump committed the crime of obstruction."

JFK Records Suit Tests CIA Secrecy on Assassination
Morley v. CIA has wound its way through the courts for 16 years, and revealed some juicy nuggets along the way. The plaintiff, who is the biographer of two top CIA operations officers,…

Split Over Compelled Decryption Deepens With Massachusetts Case
Encryption is as omnipresent as computers, tablets, and smartphones. Yet the Supreme Court has not provided guidance on the constitutional implications of compelling a suspect…

The September 11 Military Commissions Trudge On
Nearly two decades after the September 11 attacks, we are still waiting for justice to be administered to the majority of the Al Qaeda suspects being held at Guantanamo—including…

CBP’s New Social Media Surveillance: A Threat to Free Speech and Privacy
U.S. Customs and Border Protection's efforts to map out the networks and activities of American activists and journalists through link analysis and social media monitoring pose…

Deconstructing the Int’l Criminal Court’s Decision on Afghanistan
The decision of the International Criminal Court’s Pre-Trial Chamber II refusing to open an investigation into crimes committed in Afghanistan establishes a new Rome Statute…

Mueller Report and the President’s Personal Lawyers: Did They Violate Criminal Law and Ethical Rules?
Leading legal ethics professor analyzes the criminal law and ethical rules that would apply in light of conduct of Trumps personal lawyers revealed in the Mueller Report.

On Mueller Report, Barr Says No Executive Privilege Redactions. But Look for Assertion Later.
The release of the redacted version of the Mueller Report may not signal the end of debates over Executive Privilege, and is likely only the beginning of congressional activity…

Al-Nashiri III: A No Good, Very Bad Day for U.S. Military Commissions
A stunning, unanimous opinion of the DC Court of Appeals throws out every single pretrial order issued over the past 3 1/2 years in case of Al-Nashiri. What this says about the…

Barr’s Redaction Process, cont’d
Attorney General William Barr testified at length last week, in the House and the Senate, about his ongoing process of redacting the Mueller Report in anticipation of sharing it…

Julian Assange and Omar al-Bashir: What Comes Next for Two Global Fugitives?
Yesterday was a breathtaking one for global criminal justice. First, British police arrested Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy in London and then, just hours later, the…