Litigation
823 Articles
The So-Called Huawei Scandal and the Snowden Operation
We should spy on China. And Russia. And Iran. And plenty of other countries too. They are our political, diplomatic and economic competitors and enemies. And they spy on us. If…
Constitutional Conflict & Congressional Oversight
This week has seen a long-smoldering Senate investigation of CIA torture allegations burst into a public conflagration between the CIA and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.…
Crime, Sentencing and the War on Terror: Further Thoughts on the Al Darbi Plea
Last month, Ahmed Muhammed Haza al Darbi became the sixth Guantanamo detainee to plead guilty to war crimes before a military commission. The U.S. has accused al Darbi of various…
ACLU Takes Phone-Records Challenge to Appeals Court
The ACLU has just filed its opening brief in the Second Circuit in its challenge to the NSA’s phone-records program. The brief—the first appellate brief to be filed in any…
Al Darbi Pleads Guilty but Questions Remain [UPDATED re AE168]
In news today from the military commissions in Guantanamo Bay, Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed Haza al Darbi pled guilty to charges brought against him—charges which arose from his role…
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…
The True Significance of Judge Tatel’s Opinion in the Force-Feeding Appeal
As Wells already flagged over at Lawfare, the D.C. Circuit decided Aamer v. Obama this morning — the effort by some of the Guantánamo detainees to challenge the force-feeding…
A Terrorist Watchlist Error Revealed
Last month, a federal district court for the very first time ordered the government to disclose an individual’s status on the terrorist watchlist. Jennifer Daskal described…
An al Qaeda Armed Conflict with France or Malaysia?: The Legal Question at the Heart of the al Darbi Case
Yesterday the Acting Convening Authority of the GTMO Military Commissions, Navy General Counsel Paul Oostburg Sanz, referred charges against Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed Haza al Darbi,…
The Muhtorov Constitutional Challenge to Section 702
Jamshid Muhtorov is a lawful permanent U.S. resident and a criminal defendant in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, charged with providing material support to…
Quantum Mechanics, Big Data and the Right of Privacy
If it has done nothing else, the exposure of the NSA metadata collection program has caused both legal commentators and courts to rethink the doctrines that have long governed…
Another (Dubious) Guantánamo Precedent
As Wells Bennett flagged over at Lawfare, the D.C. Circuit’s latest foray into the Guantánamo detainee litigation came two weeks ago in Al-Janko v. Gates, in which a…