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.
4,623 Articles
The Irresponsible Institutional Politics of an “Election Year”
This post is the latest installment of our “Monday Reflections” feature, in which a different Just Security editor examines the big stories from the previous week or looks…
Closing GTMO: “Why wasn’t there a clearly delineated strategy?”
It’s not even the most glaring error in Dina Temple-Raston’s review of Charlie Savage’s Power Wars, but this passage sure does stand out: While the issue of closing…
Congress Squawks as Surveillance Chickens Come Home to Roost
A year that has alternated between major surveillance reforms and calls for new spying laws in the wake of ISIS attacks is set to close with a pendulum swing back against NSA surveillance…
The Scope of the Prepublication Review Problem, and What to Do About It
Editor’s note: This post also appears on Lawfare. The problems in the prepublication review process that we identified in our Washington Post op-ed and in a subsequent post…
Path Dependence and the Prepublication Review Process
Editor’s note: This post also appears on Lawfare. Over the weekend, we wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post about the lifetime prepublication review process required of nearly…
“Expansion” or contraction?: The case of Special Operations forces in the Middle East
In today’s New York Times, Mark Mazzetti and Eric Schmitt have a very interesting and informative story about President Obama’s use of Special Operations Forces in the U.S.…
More Problems With Prepublication Review
Editor’s note: This post also appears on Lawfare. Over the weekend, we published an op-ed in the Washington Post about the government’s broken prepublication review process.…
Ten National Security Oversight Issues to Watch in 2016
This post is the latest installment of our “Monday Reflections” feature, in which a different Just Security editor examines the big stories from the previous week or looks…
The Over-Complicated Prepublication Review Process
I wanted to quickly flag for readers a great op-ed written by our own Oona Hathaway and Lawfare’s Jack Goldsmith in the Washington Post that dives into how out of control the…
What explains the three-year delay on the Slahi habeas petition?
As Ben Wittes notes over at Lawfare, last week Judge Royce Lamberth denied a motion by habeas petitioner Mohamedou Ould Slahi to require the Department of Defense to expedite…
A FOIA Circuit Split That the Supreme Court Needs To Resolve
On Friday, January 8, the Supreme Court will consider a petition for certiorari in EPIC v. DHS, a lawsuit by the Electronic Privacy and Information Center (EPIC) under the Freedom…
An unspecified (and unclear) debate about the Rules of Engagement in Syria
In a lead story today, the Washington Post reports that France, the U.K., and Iraqi commanders are all “chaf[ing] at” or “complain[ing] about” the United…