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.
2,856 Articles

A Potential Recourse for Targets of White House Security Clearance Threats
The White House has recently stated that it is considering revoking the security clearances of several former high ranking public officials. In a July 23 press conference, White…

Legitimizing Foreign Mass Surveillance in the European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) is beginning to weigh in on a sweep of legislation passed, in recent years, that authorizes bulk interception of foreign communications…

Who Says Collusion is a Crime: The Justice Department
"Any discussion in this space should include an understanding that the U.S. Justice Department has set out explicitly that acts of collusion can amount to a federal crime, and…

Just Security Podcast: ACLU’s David Cole on Defending our Democratic Traditions
Roughly a year ago, I sat down with ACLU Legal Director and Just Security editorial board member David Cole to pick his brain about what our various independent government branches…

The Trial of Paul Manafort: What to Expect
The trial of former Trump campaign director Paul Manafort is scheduled to begin today in Virginia before Judge T.S. Ellis. Manafort is facing myriad charges, including tax fraud,…

Reports: Carter Page Was Subject to FISA Warrant in 2013/2014
I have always recalled a nugget buried deep in a CNN report published in Aug. 4, 2017. The 61st paragraph of the report reads: "Page had been the subject of a secret intelligence…

A Path to Prosecuting President Trump
Justice Department regulations allow Special Counsel Robert Mueller, in “extraordinary circumstances,” to ask Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to approve a departure…

The Latest ISIS Casualty? UK’s Principled Opposition to the Death Penalty
Like a dripping corrosive liquid, ISIS and the response it provokes from governments are slowly eating away at key human rights principles. Driven by a desire to appear tough on…

If Trump Revoked Critics’ Security Clearances, Could They Sue?
There’s a strong argument to be made that at least some constitutional challenges to the revocation of security clearances would be judicially reviewable.

Trump’s Order on Administrative Law Judges: Perhaps Insidious, Probably Harmless
A career civil service insulated from partisan retaliation has been a fixture of American government since the enactment of the Pendleton Act 135 years ago. Such a bureaucracy…

Setting the Record Straight: The Pardon Power is Part of the Rule of Law
Writing from the perspective of a former federal prosecutor, Barbara McQuade decried President Donald Trump’s most recent exercise of the pardon power, which supposedly poses…

When the President is At War with the Presidency: Implications for Presidential Authority from Trump v. Hawaii
What is the relationship between the person of the president and the office of the presidency? That question lies at the crux of Trump v. Hawaii, though it remains largely unaddressed…