Democracy & Rule of Law
Rule of Law
1,044 Articles

Mueller’s Choice of Criminal Charges: Why the Trump Team Should Be Very Worried
The Russians not only told the Trump campaign that they had dirt on Hillary Clinton in the form of thousands of emails, but also previewed for George Papadopoulos that they could…

New Ruling Shows How Few Options There Are for Intelligence Community Whistleblowers
Last week, a federal judge dismissed a complaint by a CIA whistleblower (and spy), who goes by the pseudonym James Pars. The ruling by Judge Trevor McFadden could affect the willingness…

Supreme Court Cases Support Obstruction Charges Against the President
Is there a fundamental weakness in the potential case of obstruction against President Donald Trump? At the end of the day, the known facts regarding Trump’s actions are likely…

Russia “Previewed” Plan to Disseminate Emails with Trump Campaign
Goodman analyzes Schiff’s revelation that Russia gave preview to Trump campaign that the Kremlin could help disseminate stolen emails. Then he addresses the legally important…

Important Report by White House on National Security Due Soon
The executive branch owes it to Congress—and all of us—to deliver the answers Congress has demanded to do the critical job assigned to our national legislature and serve the…

Will the Next Use of Force “Transparency Report” be Transparent? Devil May be in Classified Details
Congress recently required the President to submit a report that describes the administration’s legal and policy positions on the use of military force and related national security…

Mueller’s Uphill Battle: Obstruction Law and the Comey Firing
Did the president commit a violation of federal criminal law when he fired the FBI director? Many commentators assume that the president has violated one of several criminal statutes…

Can “Fake News” be stopped?
The David Hogg conspiracy theory highlights the speed at which false information spreads on social media. And it is currently beyond the capacity of automated systems to determine…

The Microsoft Design Decisions That Caused this Mess
I need not spend much space on the merits of United States v. Microsoft, the case about the extraterritoriality of email search warrants that the Supreme Court will decide this…

The Pardon Boomerang: Why Trump Associates May Need to Decline Any Offer of a Pardon
With the idea of presidential pardons resurfacing, there’s a reason that option may simply not work for the President. Trump associates would face a significant risk that their…

UN Releases Guidelines for Team Investigating ISIS Crimes in Iraq
Back in September, we covered the establishment by the U.N. Security Council of a novel "Investigative Team" to investigate international crimes (genocide, crimes against humanity…

The Indictment of Russia’s Super PAC and the Open Question of Trump Campaign Complicity
Russia's Internet Research Agency is now revealed to have been among the largest Super PACs operating in the 2016 elections. This is now clearly one of the major campaign finance…