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.
4,594 Articles
Missing Transparency: Is the US Response to Reported Drone Attack on Wedding Party Self-Defeating?
On Thursday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a fact-intensive report based on the group’s investigations into a US drone strike that allegedly hit a wedding party in Yemen…
Information Cascades and Intelligence Oversight
Sen. Blumenthal opened a recent surveillance oversight hearing by hammering an important point from the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board’s thorough report on the…
Why Does Microsoft Want a Global Convention on Government Access to Data?
Last month, Brad Smith, the General Counsel of Microsoft, called for an international convention on government access to consumer data (he was at Davos, so presumably he uploaded…
Letter to the Editor from former US Air Force Airman and drone sensor operator, Brandon Bryant
[Editor’s note: Brandon Bryant is a former U.S. Air Force Airman, who served as a sensor operator for the Air Force drone program (2005-2011). Following his active duty in the…
A Rejoinder from Jenks and Corn re U.S. SIGINT Based Targeting
There is probably no area of greater consensus between us and Professors Goodman and Jinks (their post) than the recognition that the law of armed conflict should and must be responsive…
Military Targeting Based on Cellphone Location
A recent news story by Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill details the use of NSA signals intelligence (SIGINT) – including cellphone and SIM card data – to locate and kill…
Eyes Wide Shut: Scahill and Greenwald’s Flawed Critique of U.S. SIGINT Based Targeting
[Editor’s Note: Stay tuned later today for a post by Ryan Goodman and Derek Jinks responding to the guest post by Chris Jenks and Geoffrey Corn.] In The NSA’s Secret Role in…
The al Iraqi Case and the Future of Military Commissions
This morning’s New York Times features a story by Charlie Savage about yesterday’s addition of a conspiracy charge to the pending military commission proceeding at…
Do “Extrajudicial Releases” of Afghan Detainees Violate International Law?: The Missing Legal Arguments
Today’s release of detainees by Afghan authorities, from the Parwan detention facility near Bagram airfield, has met with strong responses by the US embassy in Kabul (here) and…
Members of the PCLOB Testifying Before the Senate Judiciary Committee
This morning at 10:00am, the Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing on “The Report of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board on Reforms to the Section…
In the Trenches: The Other Civilian/Military Conflict
Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates new book, Duty, Memoirs of a Secretary at War, which describes the tensions and lack of trust between the White House and senior military…
Eight Questions PCLOB Should Ask About Section 702
Tomorrow, all five members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee about their recent report concluding that…