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.
4,605 Articles
Yates Letter Points to Evidence Showing Executive Order Unconstitutional
As Acting Attorney General, Sally Yates dropped a bombshell late Monday, telling Justice Department employees that the DOJ would not defend Trump’s executive order on “immigrants…
How Trump’s Executive Order on Immigration Violates Religious Freedom Laws
The ACLU and other lawyers are filing complaints across the country against Trump’s executive order on immigration. Yet these lawsuits do not always bring the strongest—or…
Steve Bannon Is Making Sure There’s No White House Paper Trail, Says Intel Source
If there was any question about who is largely in charge of national security behind the scenes at the White House, the answer is becoming increasingly clear: Steve Bannon, the…
Trump’s First Counterterrorism Operations and the Prior Interagency Review Process
When a U.S. service member or unanticipated civilian dies in a U.S. military operation, hard questions need to be asked about what happened and how to prevent such tragedies in…
Why a Muslim Ban is Likely to be Held Unconstitutional: The Myth of Unconstrained Immigration Power
Over the last few days, constitutional debates around the executive order President Trump signed on Friday have focused on two very different questions. The first is whether the…
Safe Zones for Syria: A List of Questions that Policymakers Need to Answer
President Donald Trump seems intent on creating so-called “safe zones” in Syria. Last week he told ABC’s David Muir, “I’ll absolutely do safe zones…
The Airport Cases: What Happened, and What’s Next?
Obviously, the story of the morning on Monday is going to be the rather tumultuous weekend that resulted from the Executive Order on immigration signed by President Trump late…
Do Public Protests Matter in a Democracy? The “outside strategy” as a signal of support to judges and bureaucrats
Opponents of President Donald trump mobilized record crowds to protest his anticipated policies – and the President and congressional Republicans largely ignored them. One…
The Muslim Ban, Judicial Review, and the Supreme Court
There’s so much to say about the Executive Order on immigration issued on Friday by President Trump. Much of it has been said by Ben Wittes, in his fantastic post on “Malevolence…
We’ll See You in Court: Why Trump’s Executive Order on Refugees Violates the Establishment Clause
According to the Supreme Court, “the clearest command of the Establishment Clause is that one religious denomination cannot be officially preferred over another.” Larson v.…
Comparing: The Leaked Draft vs Final Executive Order Barring Citizens of 7 Muslim-Majority Nations and All Refugees
On Friday, President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order implementing new immigration policies, which he stated are designed to “keep radical Islamic terrorists out…
Reflections on the prejudice in the draft Exec Order’s vetting of “prejudice”
On ABC News Wednesday night, President Donald Trump once again said that people coming into the United States would be subjected to “extreme vetting.” I think his expected…