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.

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4,841 Articles
The president, wearing wire-rim glasses, a dark suit with white shirt and baby blue striped tie and solid kerchief, is walking from the right of the frame to the left across a blurred background of red earth.

America Sent Them Into a Dictatorship’s Torture Chambers, Then Looked Away

The United States is deporting third-country nationals to Equatorial Guinea despite its documented pattern of human rights abuses.
A blue architectural blueprint-style graphic with white grid lines and hand-lettered labels arranged like room names on a floor plan, symbolizing the architecture of institutional reinvention.

Welcome to Just Security’s Reinvention Blueprints

Just Security's Reinvention Blueprints series features expert proposals to rebuild U.S. government institutions so they serve the public and meet today's challenges.
The Camp Justice sign near the Military Commissions court area on June 27, 2023 at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The War on Terror: A Quarter Century of Unheeded Warnings

The global war on terror demands reflection and reckoning for the damage it caused to human rights and the international legal order.
The charred remains of a small sedan, perhaps white originally, sit on a pavement in front of a tall stone wall with what appear to be wooden doors at various points along the wall. Clothes hang on a line as if to dry.

“They Will Kill Me”: Haitian Deportees from U.S. Face Fear, Uncertainty

Haitians deported from the United States face the threat of widespread gang violence, poverty, and instability.
The building of the destroyed Shajareh Tayebeh primary school is pictured surrounded by rubble in Minab in Iran's Hormozgan province on August 10, 2026.

The Limits of the Law of Armed Conflict: Individual Accountability Should Not Obscure State Responsibility for U.S. Strikes on Iran School

The law of armed conflict is not suited to provide the legal clarity the public desires immediately following attacks that kill civilians.
Patches of water by a bridge in the mostly-dry riverbed of Syria's Orontes (Assi) river during an extreme drought in the city of Jisr al-Shughur in Syria's northwestern Idlib province.

Don’t Let Syria’s Recovery Become Collateral Damage in the Iran-U.S. War

The global energy crisis and other spillover effects from the war in Iran are jeopardizing Syria's economic recovery.
A sign for Camp Justice in Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba.

Twenty-Five Years After 9/11 – and Still Waiting for Justice

Because of the United States' use of torture on the September 11 suspects, justice for the 9/11 plotters remains elusive 25 years later.
US Air Force Gen. Dan Caine (L), chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, presents a plaque to US Navy Adm. Alvin Holsey (R) during Holsey's relinquishment of command and retirement ceremony at US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) headquarters in Doral, Florida.

Who Checks the President? Not the Military

The responsibility for checking contentious policies rests not with the military, but with elected officials, constitutional institutions, and the American people.
A mail ballot drop box is seen at a polling station on November 4, 2025 in Arlington, Virginia.

What’s Conspicuously Missing from the Government’s Supreme Court Reply Brief in the Mail Ballots Case

The most noteworthy development of the past couple of days is what Solicitor General Sauer does not say.

9/11 Then and Now: How It Shapes Us 25 Years On

We asked experts with deep personal and professional ties to the post-9/11 era: how did 9/11 shape your path, and how does it continue to shape us 25 years later?

The Just Security Podcast: 9/11 at 25 Years: The State of U.S. National Security, Intelligence, and Alliances Today

Ryan Goodman and Tess Bridgeman are joined by Daniel Fried and Nicholas Rasmussen to discuss the enduring impact of 9/11 on U.S. counterterrorism and foreign policy.
The U.S. Department of Justice Building on August 17, 2026 in Washington, DC.

What OLC’s Latest Opinion Means for Congressional Oversight of the Private Sector

Unpacking the Office of Legal Counsel opinion concluding that executive privilege may apply to presidential communications with private advisers.
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