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
Highlights of Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ Hearing
Today’s hearing with Attorney General Jeff Sessions before the Senate Intelligence Committee included the following ten highlights: 1. Sessions refused to answer many questions…
Why Trump Can’t (Lawfully) Fire Mueller
There’s been a great deal of noise from some of the President’s confidants over the past 48 hours suggesting that he might (try to) remove Special Counsel Robert Mueller. …
Fatally Flawed Anti-Torture Assurances
An man detained by U.S. forces in Iraq in 2005 After September 11, the United States and other countries heavily relied on diplomatic assurances as counterterrorism tools to legally…
U.S. Secrecy and Transparency in the Use of Lethal Force
Much of the news in the first few months of the Trump administration has been dominated by the Russia scandal, James Comey, and the President’s Twitter feed. Falling below…
Five (Not-So-Obvious) Questions that Att’y Gen. Jeff Sessions Should be Asked
There are many obvious questions that Senators and reporters should pose to Attorney General Jeff Sessions—such as asking him about his knowledge of the reasons the President…
Cutting To the Bone of American Leadership
The recent resignation of David Rank, a 27-year career Foreign Service officer who was serving as acting U.S. Ambassador to China, is just the latest U.S. diplomatic casualty of…
Is Att’y Gen. Jeff Sessions About to Commit Perjury?
Following James Comey’s hearing on Capitol Hill, the Department of Justice issued a statement which flatly contradicts something that Comey said in his testimony. It appears…
Parsing the White House Response to Comey’s Testimony
The most extraordinary thing to come out of the hearing the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence held Thursday may not be former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony,…
Of Laws, Not Men
Those old enough to remember Watergate will recall that “we are a government of laws, not men” became a mantra. It was repeated so often as to risk banality. But we are a nation…
Norms Watch: Democracy, the Trump Administration, and Reactions to It (June 2-June 9)
Editor’s Note: Welcome to the latest installment of Norms Watch, our series tracking both the flouting of democratic norms by the Trump administration and the erosion of…
Neither Facially Legitimate Nor Bona Fide–Why the Very Text of the Travel Ban Shows It’s Unconstitutional
As the litigation over the travel ban moves to the Supreme Court, the most important passage in the Fourth Circuit’s en banc opinion may be a tangential footnote finding “yet…
The Silly “Comey-the-Criminal” Meme–a.k.a. Why Claims that Comey’s a “Leaker” Ring Hollow
The strangest claim to emerge from yesterday’s Senate intelligence committee hearing is the one first suggested by President Trump’s personal lawyer, Marc Kasowitz,…