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.
4,711 Articles
Verdict in Cambodia: Too Little Too Late, but Still Important
Amidst all the developments in the Middle East, we could not allow the verdict rendered by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) in Case 002 to go unacknowledged.…
How Not to Authorize Force Against ISIS: A Response to Jack Goldsmith
Over at Lawfare, Jack Goldsmith appears to suggest that President Obama’s decision to authorize limited uses of force in Iraq underscores the need for an open-ended congressional…
President Authorizes Airstrikes against ISIS in Iraq—But how limited is it?
On Thursday night, President Obama announced that he has authorized airstrikes “if necessary” for “two missions” in Iraq (full text of the President’s statement). Mission…
Inspectors General Information Access Complaints
Earlier this week, 47 Inspectors General (IGs) across the federal government signed a letter to congressional oversight committees complaining about impediments to access to information…
Judge Bates (Unintentionally) Makes the Case for FISC Reform
Whatever one thinks of the Senate version of the USA FREEDOM Act–which offers a series of substantive and procedural reforms to U.S. surveillance programs–it is now…
Myth Busting?: NSA Mass Foreign Surveillance Over 30 Years Ago
NSA surveillance, in the context of post-9/11 counterterrorism, is often characterized by an exceptional technological capacity and strategic commitment to “Collect It All.”…
U.S. Edges Back Toward Landmine Treaty Path
After an agonizing five-year wait, the US announced the initial results of its landmine policy review on June 27, the final day of the Mine Ban Treaty’s Third Review Conference…
“Techniques that I believe and I think any fair-minded person would believe were torture”: Redacted CIA report summary now in the hands of the SSCI–What next? [UPDATED]
[UPDATED August 2] The President announced yesterday that the Executive branch has now provided to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence a partially declassified version…
Deferential D.C. Circuit Upholds Genital Searches at Guantánamo
I’ve written before about the potential significance of the Guantánamo “counsel access” case—Hatim v. Obama–which raised the question of whether…
Russian Treaty Violations: A Blast from the Past or an Omen for the Future
On July 28, the New York Times ran a story with the headline “U.S. Says Russia Tested Cruise Missile, Violating Treaty.” Surprisingly, this story about an arms control…
Updated developments regarding FAA Section 702 and related matters
I’ve published a couple of posts here tracking some of the more important recent developments respecting Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008. This post is an…
Court Rules Against Microsoft: Questions of Data, Territoriality, and the Government’s Search Authority Headed to the 2nd Circuit
I blogged previously about the really interesting dispute between Microsoft and the government regarding the territorial reach of the warrant authority under ECPA. As you may recall,…