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.
2,869 Articles
Intelligence Community Directive 119 and the First Amendment
As the inestimable Steve Aftergood noted last week over at Secrecy News, the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, has issued a new “Intelligence Community Directive”…
Petition denied in Hedges
The Supreme Court this morning unsurprisingly, and without comment, denied the petition for certiorari in Hedges v. Obama, No. 13-758. The plaintiffs in Hedges challenged the…
Let the Sun Shine In: WaPo Story on the Magistrates’ Revolt
Yesterday’s Washington Post has an interesting story about the increasingly aggressive role some federal magistrate judges are playing in policing criminal investigations involving…
Standing and Causes of Action in Zivotofsky
As a nerdy follow-on to Bob’s excellent guest post on the Zivotofsky case (which could prove to be the most significant foreign affairs case that the Supreme Court has…
Zivotofsky v. Kerry
The Jerusalem passport case involves an important question of the separation of powers in the conduct of foreign affairs: Is the President’s power to recognize foreign states…
Hussain and AUMF Repeal
In light of the ongoing discussion regarding Justice Breyer’s interesting statement regarding denial of certiorari in Hussain, I thought I’d flag a separate, but related,…
Justice Breyer’s intriguing suggestions in Hussain: A sign of habeas challenges to come?
Last month I predicted that one or more Justices would issue a separate opinion when the Court denied certiorari in Hussain, and that the likely topic of such an opinion would…
Court Decision Supports Broader Disclosures on US Drone War
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision yesterday that the Obama administration had waived its right to refuse to turn over legal memos justifying the killing of a U.S.…
The Second Circuit and the Vices of Selective Disclosure
I’ve now had a full day to digest yesterday’s lengthy decision by the Second Circuit in New York Times v. Department of Justice, which, among other things, orders…
Judge Pohl’s order requiring disclosure of details of CIA’s “black sites” now unclassified
As I mentioned last week, in the al Nashiri military commission case, Judge Pohl has issued an order requiring that the prosecution turn over to the defense team the details —…
Consequences of the Fact-Based Armed Conflict Test in Yemen’s Internal Armed Conflict
Ryan’s recent post about ongoing “drone strikes” in Yemen raises an issue that has troubled me for quite some time from a legal, policy, and advocacy perspective. In the…
Letter to the Editor from Gabor Rona, On Justice Breyer’s Concurrence in Hussain
If Justice Breyer’s statement is a sign that the Supreme Court may now be willing to wrest its “war on terror” role back from the DC Circuit, it may be due…