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.
2,973 Articles
DOJ Files Opening Brief in Klayman Appeal
It’s been some time since we’ve discussed developments related to the Section 215 telephony metadata program. More attention of late has been focused on Section 702…
A Quick and Dirty Summary of–and Reaction to–the Al-Bahlul Decision [UPDATED]
What follows is a very quick-and-dirty summary of this morning’s ruling by the en banc D.C. Circuit in Al-Bahlul v. United States. There are five opinions, but a couple…
British Government’s “Fast-Track” Surveillance Legislation Proposals
On July 10, Theresa May, the Home Secretary made an oral statement in the House of Commons introducing “fast track legislation” – the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers…
En Banc D.C. Circuit Rejects Ex Post Facto Challenge to Guantánamo Military Commission
Here’s the 150 pages worth of opinions. The headline appears to be a rejection of Bahlul’s ex post facto challenge to his conspiracy conviction, but there’s a…
New Court Orders Signal More Drone Documents Are on the Way
For more than four years of Freedom of Information Act litigation concerning the government’s targeted-killing program, the government managed to avoid releasing a single document…
Joint Chiefs of Staff: Bergdahl exchange vital to keeping faith with American service members
All seven members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have written a separate letter to the Chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee stating their support for the exchange of the…
The D.C. Circuit, Article II, and the Constitutionality of the Guantánamo Transfer Restrictions
When President Obama transferred five Taliban detainees from Guantánamo in exchange for American POW Bowe Bergdahl, forests were felled over whether the Obama Administration…
Immunity Before the African Court of Justice & Human & Peoples Rights—The Potential Outlier
As is clear from our prior coverage of the issue, the availability of jurisdictional or defensive immunities is ever-present in discussions of how to ensure accountability for…
Immunities and Criminal Prosecution within the United States & Beyond
The African Union’s controversial effort to grant sitting heads-of-state and “other senior state officials” immunity before the proposed new African criminal chambers (see…
The Stakes of al-Bahlul, Nine Months Later…
This past Monday marked nine months since the en banc oral argument in al-Bahlul v. United States, in which the D.C. Circuit is considering whether military commissions at Guantánamo…
Riley v. California — An Important Step Forward, but How Far Forward?
The joined cases of Riley v. California and United States v. Wurie rightly have been hailed as a ringing endorsement of privacy in the digital age. By holding that police may…
Fifth Circuit on Extraterritorial Application of Fourth and Fifth Amendments
On the heels of this morning’s Fourth Circuit decision in the Abu Ghraib case comes another significant circuit-level decision–this one from the Fifth Circuit. The…