Executive Branch
Just Security’s expert authors provide analysis of the U.S. executive branch related to national security, rights, and the rule of law. Analysis and informational resources focus on the executive branch’s powers and their limits, and the actions of the president, administrative agencies, and federal officials.
4,757 Articles
Four Remarkable Arguments in DOJ’s Latest Brief in the Michael Flynn Case [UPDATED with links to reply/response briefs]
A couple of weeks ago, I published a very long, comprehensive post in which I tried to explain all the ins and outs of the Michael Flynn case, from 2016 to the present day. Since…
New Complicity Charges Filed in the Killing of George Floyd
UPDATED As millions of people take to the streets demanding racial justice, accountability for police violence, and the demilitarization of the police, the case against the ex-police…
The United States’ Racial Justice Problem Is Also an International Human Rights Law Problem
An essay by United Nations Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, Professor E. Tendayi Achiume.
What Fuels Autocracies Fuels Corruption
Hungary and Brazil aren’t outliers: Leaders in China, Bolivia, Cambodia, India, and elsewhere are using sweeping measures — some of them newly implemented — to restrict civil…
Ignore Trump’s Twitter Tantrum Executive Order and Address Disinformation Instead
The solution is not to give government or platforms more power to make opaque, arbitrary decisions on content, but to help users protect themselves.
If We Could See Ourselves from the Outside
Can a change of perspective dislodge the assumed inevitability of an enduring democracy?
The Growing Irrelevance of State’s List of Countries Not Cooperating on Counterterrorism
Any certification that labels countries as not cooperating fully on counterterrorism and includes only the five countries listed by the State Department last month is less about…
The U.S. Constitution and Limits on Detention and Use of Force in Handling Civil Unrest
Under what circumstances may the government use lethal and non- or lesser-lethal force in the face of unlawful protests, riots, and looting?
Pompeo’s Personal Stake in the International Criminal Court’s Afghan Investigation
It is no secret that the Trump administration, in general, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, specifically, are hostile toward the International Criminal Court (ICC), particularly…
The Military Justice Dimension: Constraints on Military Personnel in Handling Civil Unrest
Top Expert Backgrounder: How the code of military justice applies to National Guard and other military personnel responding to protests. What must they do if the president issues…
Trump’s Moves Are Right Out of the Authoritarian Playbook
Trump's recent actions may be of a man fearful of looking weak to the world, but they are also redolent of how authoritarian regimes in countries the world over have responded…
The President and the Domestic Deployment of the Military: Answers to Five Key Questions
Can President Trump use the military without governors' consent? What are the rules for the use of force?