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.
4,713 Articles
The Private Frontline in Cybersecurity Offense and Defense
Two reports released Tuesday highlight the important role private actors are playing in cybersecurity defense. Cybersecurity company FireEye released a report on espionage activities…
The Blackwater Trial: Part 2 – Two Legal Issues
In the first part of this summary, we introduced the individuals in Blackwater’s Raven 23 team and set out their contrasting arguments about what took place at Nisour Square…
Samantar v. Yousuf: What Happens Next?
As Beth Van Schaack reported last week, the Supreme Court has called for the views of the Solicitor General in Samantar v. Yousuf, a case raising questions about the immunity of…
German Spy Agency Contradicts U.S. Claim that Russia Gave Weapon System that Downed MH17
Germany’s foreign intelligence agency has concluded that pro-Russian separatists shot down Malaysia Airline flight 17 using a BUK air defense missile system that the rebels stole…
The War in Afghanistan is Far from Over
Tuesday was an ominous one for news about Afghanistan. While much of the media’s attention has recently been focused on Syria, Iraq, and Ebola, NATO is still facing challenges…
Chemical Weapons and Secrecy: a Terrible Combination
Last week’s New York Times article detailing the fact that, between 2004 and 2011, American troops in Iraq “secretly reported finding roughly 5,000 chemical warheads, shells…
Military Commissions After Guantánamo
This Wednesday morning at 9:30 (EDT), a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit (Henderson, Rogers, & Tatel, JJ.) will hear oral argument in al Bahlul v. United States–a Guantánamo…
“Just looking for loopholes…”
…is what W. C. Fields supposedly said when someone found him leafing through the Bible. Apparently some lawyers in the Obama administration are following Fields’s lead,…
Ebola Could Become President Obama’s Katrina
Ebola could become President Barack Obama’s hurricane Katrina in terms of the inadequacy of the government’s response. The US government is in reaction mode, seemingly…
One More Thing on Goldsmith & Waxman
There is not much to add to my colleague Shalev Roisman’s response to Jack Goldsmith and Matthew Waxman’s essay in The New Republic arguing that it is President Obama, and…
Security “Front Doors” vs. “Back Doors”: A Distinction Without a Difference
Thursday, FBI Director James Comey delivered a talk at the Brookings Institution, titled “Going Dark: Are Technology, Privacy, and Public Safety on a Collision Course?” His…
Rejecting the Bush Comparison: A Response to Goldsmith & Waxman
Jack Goldsmith and Matthew Waxman have written an interesting essay on President Obama’s war powers legacy, boldly titled “Obama, not Bush, is the Master of Unilateral War.”…