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.

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4,605 Articles
Yemen on a map.

Hitting Iran Where It Doesn’t Hurt: Why U.S. Intervention in Yemen Will Backfire

It’s tempting to take last weekend’s attacks on al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) targets as evidence that the Trump administration is prioritizing narrow counterterrorism…
Military personnel crowd around a laptop.

Why a Broad Definition of “Violence” in Cyber Conflict is Unwise and Legally Unsound

International Humanitarian Law (IHL, aka the Law of Armed Conflict) is not intended to outlaw conflict.  It is meant to regulate conflict in order to reduce its impact on civilians…

Three Problems with President Trump’s Guantánamo Tweet

In case you missed it, this morning’s tweetstorm from the White House began with this missive: 122 vicious prisoners, released by the Obama Administration from Gitmo, have…

Does Trump’s New Travel Ban Violate the Establishment Clause?

President Trump has signed a new travel ban. In some respects, the new executive order on immigration looks like the old one, which was held to be unconstitutional. So does the…

A Line-by-Line Comparison Between Trump’s Original Muslim Ban and Today’s

Want to know the difference between Trump’s last executive order and his latest? Data visualization specialist and longtime friend of Just Security, John Emerson, gave us…

We’ll See You in Court, 2.0: Once a Muslim Ban, Still a Muslim Ban

If a Muslim Ban is cleaned up to exclude Iraq, exempt lawful permanent residents and other current visa holders, is it still a Muslim ban?  That’s the question presented by…

Why the New Travel Ban Doesn’t Resolve the Old One’s Problems

This morning, President Donald Trump signed a revised executive order on immigration, designed to correct the deficiencies of the last one that several courts have put on hold.…

It Ain’t Easy Getting a FISA Warrant: I Was an FBI Agent and Should Know

In his latest round of twiplash, President Trump on Saturday leveled a very serious accusation: that President Obama had personally ordered the “tapping” of telephone lines…
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson take part in a news conference about issues related to a reconstituted travel ban at the U.S. Customs and Borders Protection headquarters, on March 6, 2017 in Washington, DC.

More Info Needed on Travel Ban’s Claim that 300 Refugees Under Counterterrorism Investigations

To justify why it’s suspending the U.S. refugee program, President Donald Trump’s new executive order states that 300 people who entered the US as refugees are now…
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson take part in a news conference about issues related to a reconstituted travel ban at the U.S. Customs and Borders Protection headquarters, on March 6, 2017 in Washington, DC.

The Ongoing Dangers of the Revised Immigration EO

The Trump administration issued its updated immigration executive order on Monday.  It seeks to correct for the total chaos that ensued after the issuance of the first Executive…

EXCLUSIVE: Trump Administration Fact Sheets on New Executive Order Banning Travel to the US

Just Security has obtained two documents prepared by the Trump administration to help explain its revised travel ban executive order, which President Donald Trump signed Monday.…
Police cars outside the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building, where the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has a field office on the 23rd floor, November 4, 2016 in New York City.

Real Questions include FBI Inaction and Action on Russia

On Sunday, in a follow-up to President Trump’s controversial tweets, the White House called for Congress to look into how the FBI investigated Russian connections to the Trump…
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