Democracy & Rule of Law
Just Security’s expert authors provide analysis on threats and challenges to democracy and the rule of law in the United States and globally. Coverage includes analysis of the separation of powers, good governance, democratic backsliding, authoritarianism, judicial independence, freedom of the press and association, and accountability for rule of law violations.
3,150 Articles
Renewed focus on statutory construction in the Section 215 litigation
C-SPAN videotaped Tuesday’s oral argument in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in ACLU v. Clapper, one of the primary challenges to the Section 215 telephony…
FISC OKs Section 215 Investigations of Americans, Despite First Amendment
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court declassified an opinion today which, although highly redacted, illuminates the way at least one Judge is interpreting his mandate to…
Impact(s) of the Boehner Lawsuit on the Separation of Powers in National Security
While there have been countless articles written on the House efforts to sue President Obama, few commentators have opined on the likely impact(s) of the House lawsuit on national…
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…
Multiple Choice: Who Said This on Transparency and Targeted Killings Across State Borders?
Question: Who said this? “While the U.S. regards attacks on terrorists being protected in the sovereign territory of other States as potentially justifiable when undertaken in…
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…
Nine to One, Baby, One in Nine: Surveillance by the Numbers
There’s a great deal of interesting material in this weekend’s big Washington Post story on collection of Internet communications under §702 of the FISA Amendments…
Transparency and Lethal Operations: A Checklist of What’s Public and What’s Still Secret [Updated]
Transparency is the touchstone for many debates about US lethal operations against Al Qaeda and associated forces. This post contains a checklist of sorts—cataloguing what information…
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…
SCOTUS & Cell Phone Searches: Digital is Different
Today, the Supreme Court unanimously invalidated warrantless searches of cell phones incident to arrest in Riley v. California and United States v. Wurie. Full disclosure: my colleagues…
You Can’t Have an “Associated Force” with No Core
There has been lots of commentary already on the newly-released (but heavily-redacted) OLC opinion, so I’ll focus mine on a key point I haven’t yet seen made. The OLC memo…
On the Benefits of Transparency: Why So Long to Disclose Drone Memo?
Monday’s release of the previously secret July 2010 Justice Department memo laying out the legal case for killing US citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki, has sparked a wide range of reactions,…