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.
4,801 Articles
Lawful Hacking After the Encryption Debate
The Obama administration has apparently decided not to support exceptional access proposals that would provide law enforcement with the means to access data on iPhones and other…
What the Third Circuit Said in Hassan v. City of New York
In Hassan v. City of New York, the Third Circuit yesterday emphatically overturned a New Jersey district court, which had dismissed a challenge to the New York City Police Department’s…
The Obama Administration’s Misguided Opposition to Tariq Ba Odah’s Request for Judicial Relief
On October 15, a federal district court in Washington, DC, will hear argument in Ba Odah v. Obama, a habeas challenge by a Guantánamo detainee whose prolonged hunger strike has…
Too Much Posturing and Not Enough Substance on Encryption
Obama administration officials revealed late last week that will not force technology firms to weaken digital encryption to give government greater access to user data. This is…
When Sorry Is Not Enough (or Makes Things Worse)
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…
Public Access to Military Trials: The Increasingly Strange Case of Sergeant Bergdahl
I still don’t know what to make of the government’s case against Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl (of Taliban detainee transfer fame) for charges of desertion and misbehavior before…
Amid Calls for UN Investigation Into Kunduz Strike, US Senator Suggests that the UN Does Not Investigate Taliban Abuses. He’s Wrong.
Today, following calls for an independent inquiry into the US airstrike on the MSF hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) – during a Senate Armed Services…
Precision Weapons, Mistakes, and the Need for Transparency
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…
Was the Kunduz Strike a War Crime?
As reports poured in over the weekend that the United States bombed a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, killing at least 12 MSF staff members and…
Rest Easy Professeurs de Trahison, You Are Not Targetable Under LOAC
William C. Bradford’s article Trahison des Professeurs: The Critical Law of Armed Conflict Academy as an Islamic Fifth Column, published last summer in George Mason Law School’s…
The Bass-Ackwards Detainee Transfer Provision in the FY2016 NDAA
There’s a lot to say about the 1,915-page National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2016 that was unveiled yesterday by the House and Senate Armed Services…
The AUMF, ISIL, and… FOIA?
Earlier today on Twitter, USA Today‘s Brad Heath posted the key paragraphs from DOJ’s denial of his FOIA request for any OLC memos relating to the applicability of…