Welcome back for another episode of the National Security Law Podcast, with Professors Steve Vladeck and Bobby Chesney. It has been another not-at-all slow week. On tap for today: The CLOUD Act: It's now the law of the land. We will go into the law's particulars next week, but for now we do want to address what passage means for the pending Supreme Court case involving the government's attempt to force Microsoft to produce data stored in Ireland. Vacate-and-remand, dismiss as improvidently grant...
Mar 27, 2018•1 hr 4 min
With apologies for short shownotes, here are the headlines for this week's NSL Podcast: The McCabe firing The prospect of legislation permitting judicial review of any decision to fire Mueller An update of the declaration of Secretary Mattis explaining why he removed the GTMO military commission's Convening Authority and his legal advisor A decision by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review recognizing standing for ACLU and MFIA to press their claim for First Amendment-based acces...
Mar 21, 2018•1 hr 4 min
So there you are on the beach for spring break, drink in hand and headphones on. Time for some...National Security Law Podcast! We're back with a special midweek episode because, well, we'll never keep up with the news if we wait till next week (and we are worried you'll start listening to music--gasp!--if we leave you alone for too long!). So here's what's on tap for today: The executive branch may be getting a bit more unitary as Secretary Tillerson gives way to Secretary Pompeo at State, and ...
Mar 15, 2018•1 hr 4 min
Out on spring break but still listening to the podcast? We love it! Actually, your hosts Professors Chesney and Vladeck are out on spring break too, but before they left town they sat down to record episode 63 on Friday March 9th. If things have gone crazy over the weekend and you are surprised they aren't discussing them here, well, that's why! This week's show, at any rate, catches up on a number of ongoing sagas: The latest twists in the Mueller investigation: Yes, we feel duty bound to talk ...
Mar 12, 2018•1 hr 1 min
It's not every week on this show that we get to talk about the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade! And if that's not an appealing hook to get you to listen, we don't know what is. Ahem.... Let's try that again. On this week's show, Professors Vladeck and Chesney cover a mix of new and old topics: President Trump's invocation of national security to justify new tariffs on steel imports: is it plausible from a legal perspective? The war(s) in Yemen, a propos...
Mar 05, 2018•57 min
No shortage of topics this week, but then again there was no shortage last week, or before that, or...ever. So, what's on tap? Tune in to hear Professors Chesney and Vladeck explore: A host of Supreme Court developments, including action relating to DACA, immigration detention and the due process clause, Patchak and the question whether Congress can direct courts to dismiss a class of cases, and-especially-the United States v. Microsoft litigation and the question whether Microsoft can refuse to...
Feb 27, 2018•1 hr 8 min
An over-long episode with a short title to reflect a very busy--and somewhat bizarre--eight day stretch in the wide world of national security law. This week, your hosts Professors Chesney and Vladeck weigh in on: The Supreme Court's decision in Rubin v. Islamic Republic of Iran The Supreme Court's denial of cert. in CareFirst The Supreme Court's telling inaction on the government's request for cert.-before-judgment in the DACA litigation The Defense Department's failure to transfer al Darbi fro...
Feb 21, 2018•1 hr 16 min
We don't lack for topics this week! In today's episode, Professors Vladeck and Chesney eat a number of cookies while talking about the following: Rachel Brand steps down at DOJ. As George III might say, what comes next? Your hosts review the order of succession. A triple update on military commission matters: Was the firing of Convening Authority Harvey Rishikoff linked to a possible plea negotiation with the 9/11 defendants? What's the deal with the Nashiri trial judge suggesting that the lone ...
Feb 13, 2018•1 hr 1 min
Sorry that football season is over? Lucky for you, the National Security Law Podcast has no offseason! And lucky for your co-hosts, the world keeps generating new topics for conversation and debate. This week, Professors Vladeck and Chesney cover four main topics: The president's "treason" remarks yesterday in Cincinnati The next stages in the Nunes #Mehmo controversy: What precisely must happen under the House rules in order for the Schiff Memo to see the light of day, and what rules and laws m...
Feb 06, 2018•1 hr 5 min
President Trump has declassified the Nunes Memo and it now is available to the public. Your hosts--Professors Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladeck--give it a deep-dive review here in a special-edition podcast episode. Tune in to hear them discuss: whether there are any factual claims in the memo which (*if* true) are worthy of concern (preview: they single out two); whether any such concerns extend so far as to call into doubt whether FISC should have granted an order to surveil Carter Page (preview:...
Feb 02, 2018•44 min
You might not want to watch the State of the Union tonight, but don't miss this episode of the podcast! This week we cover: The missing Russia sanctions? A statute enacted last summer appears at first blush to require the Trump administration to sanction people doing significant business with Russian military and intelligence entities, starting this week. It didn't happen, and some are alarmed. What did this statute actually require? We'll explore the situation, walking you through the statutory...
Jan 30, 2018•1 hr 10 min
Happy anniversary, y'all! It's been one full year since we launched this podcast, and we are very grateful for all our listeners. Here's hoping there is *less* to discuss in our second year! This week, we've got: The FISA Amendments Reform Act: How exactly does the new warrant requirement work, what it do with "about" collection, and how did it approach the question of "parallel construction"? #ReleaseTheMemo: What the heck is this all about? Must the government have a statutory or treaty basis ...
Jan 23, 2018•1 hr
And we're back, with another weekly dose of national security legal news and analysis. Fresh off the stove this week we have: Dalmazzi - Steve is just returned from his first Supreme Court argument, in the Dalmazzi litigation regarding whether military officers may serve both as CAAF and CMCR judges. Tune in to discover why the room erupted in laughter right before Steve began his argument, and to learn why Justice Kennedy wanted to know if Steve thinks Marbury was decided correctly! al-Bihani e...
Jan 17, 2018•1 hr 6 min
In this week's episode, Professors Chesney and Vladeck take on three sets of issues under the national security law heading: ACLU v. Mattis (the US citizen enemy combatant case): Since the last episode, the government has permitted the ACLU to communicate with John Doe, who does indeed want ACLU to pursue habeas relief on his behalf. This quickly led to an exchange of filings disputing whether the currently-pending petition is valid, when the government should have to file its return in response...
Jan 09, 2018•1 hr 16 min
Merry New Year! 2018 is underway, but in today's episode we are looking back at 2017. More specifically, we are looking back to predictions made in early 2017 regarding the changes President Trump surely would be making to certain executive orders and presidential directives relating to national security. How did those predictions turn out? It's rather complicated. Tune in to find out what has and has not happened, and why, as we consider the fate of five key documents: EO 13491 (interrogation a...
Jan 03, 2018•1 hr 17 min
Well, 2017 is almost done. No doubt there are a few more kicks-in-the-pants on the way before it's all said and done, but hey, we can at least offer you one final episode of this podcast! So, you've got that going for you, which is nice... Four topics today: ACLU v. Mattis - Judge Chutkan has ruled. It's brief, it's favorable to ACLU, and it's got a good shot at ... being reversed on an interlocutory appeal, at least in part. Section 702 renewal - well, here's another storyline that will certain...
Dec 27, 2017•1 hr 8 min
Are your other podcasts letting you down by taking a holiday break? Never fear, National Security Law Podcast is here! With two host who would much rather be podcasting than grading exams, you are assured of an uninterrupted holiday stream of national security legal analysis, not to mention ill-informed takes on...movie soundtracks? Seems your hosts may have been in the eggnog a bit early this year. But nevermind that, let's get to the overview of what Episode 50 has to offer: A postmortem on th...
Dec 19, 2017•54 min
In this week's episode, Professors Steve Vladeck and Bobby Chesney pick up the thread on a handful of familiar issues, and introduce a few new ones as well. Interrogation: Their first topic is a blend, actually: the case of Akayed Ullah, who attempted to set off a pipe bomb in New York City yesterday. Ullah was taken into law enforcement custody, but soon some quarters were calling for him to be placed in military custody for interrogation purposes. Your hosts will revisit the tangle of issues i...
Dec 12, 2017•1 hr 7 min
In this week's episode, Professors Chesney and Vladeck catch up with a number of 2017's most-persistent national security law sagas. For starters, there's the indictment and plea agreement of Michael Flynn. What does the charge signify, and what does this imply for the larger Mueller investigation? This leads directly to a discussion of whether it is possible, as a legal matter, for the President to "obstruct justice" (and how that phrase has both legal and political significance). From there, y...
Dec 05, 2017•1 hr 7 min
And...they're back! Fresh off of Thanksgiving, Professors Chesney and Vladeck are (all too) fired up to discuss the latest national security law news (not to mention a bunch of stuff that just isn't relevant to this (or any decent) podcast). This week some familiar storylines resume, and a few new ones appear: First up: The slowly-unfolding saga of the still-unidentified U.S. citizen held in military detention in Iraq. At long last, the district court will hold an actual hearing in ACLU v. Matti...
Nov 28, 2017•1 hr 5 min
In this week's episode, your devoted hosts dig into a bonanza of national security law odds-and-ends. First up is an en banc decision by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review involving the standing of the ACLU and the Yale Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic to litigate a claimed First Amendment right of public access in relation to FISC opinions. This may not go anywhere in the end, but it's definitely going to go further than the government wanted. Next comes the confus...
Nov 16, 2017•1 hr 2 min
Has it only been a week? Yeesh. Well, we are back! In this episode, Professors Vladeck and Chesney focus on three topics: The Mueller investigation and the prospect that Mike Flynn may be charged under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The increasingly-complex saga of the withdrawn defense lawyers in the al-Nashiri military commission case at GTMO. Habeas petitions are sprouting all over the place, and the procedural complexity of the situation is growing by the day. An interesting legal and ...
Nov 07, 2017•54 min
We are back, one day after dropping episode 43, with an emergency podcast discussion the legal consequences of the horrific attack that occurred in New York City yesterday. The need for the podcast flows from the President Trump's statements to the press today regarding the possibility of taking the perpetrator to Guantanamo, his criticisms of the criminal justice process, and statements from Senator Graham emphasizing the need to interrogate the perpetrator without counsel. Meanwhile, a militar...
Nov 01, 2017•43 min
It's been a busy week in national security law! In Episode 43, Professors Chesney and Vladeck take on: Mueller-Time: Indictments against Manafort and Gates, and an even-more important plea deal. ACLU v. Mattis and the government's filing in opposition to an order to show cause why ACLU should not get access to the US citizen held as an enemy combatant in Iraq. A new Benghazi case: United States v. Mustafa al-Imam, captured by US forces in Libya (with Libyan government permission/involvement) and...
Oct 31, 2017•55 min
This week Professors Chesney and Vladeck start with a close look at Smith v. Trump, a case that seeks a judicial ruling on whether the Islamic State really falls within the scope of the 2001 AUMF. The case presents standing and political-question doctrine issues, and will be argued soon before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. This leads into an update on ACLU v. Mattis (the attempt by ACLU to represent the still-unidentified US citizen held as an enemy combatant), as the court has issued an or...
Oct 24, 2017•53 min
If you were unsure about whether your hosts are geeks, this episode will help settle the question. But before we get to what Professors Chesney and Vladeck think they know but don't really, here's the stuff they actually do know something about! First, the Travel Ban. Buckle up, there's a new nationwide TRO, out of Hawaii, enjoining enforcement of most of Travel Ban 3.0. Second, a double-shot of the Nashiri military commissions case. The Supreme Court denied cert., seemingly paving the way for t...
Oct 17, 2017•58 min
In this week's episode, Professors Chesney and Vladeck zero in on four recent developments involving law and national security. First, they explore the Supreme Court's decision not to review the splintered decision of the en banc D.C. Circuit in Bahlul (in which a plurality of the Circuit concluded that it was constitutional for Congress to give military commissions the capacity to adjudicate a conspiracy charge, notwithstanding the government's concession that conspiracy standing alone was not ...
Oct 10, 2017•48 min
If you have ever wondered what statutes, constitutional principles, and judicial precedents come into play when the U.S. government contemplates transferring an American citizen from our military custody to the custody of another government, this is the episode for you. Building off news reports that the Trump administration is contemplating sending the as-yet-unnamed US citizen enemy combatant to Iraqi custody in order to face prosecution there, Professors Chesney and Vladeck spend much of this...
Oct 04, 2017•1 hr
Seriously, how did they manage not to say "posse comitatus" during this episode? Sigh. In this week's episode, Professors Vladeck and Chesney do talk at length about various legal issues raised by the devastation in Puerto Rico, including the possibility of an Insurrection Act invocation. In addition, they renew attention to the as-yet-unnamed U.S. citizen who apparently remains in U.S. military custody as an enemy combatant in Syria or Iraq, urging the media to keep a focus on this important si...
Sep 27, 2017•1 hr 2 min
In this week's episode, Professors Chesney and Vladeck explore three big national security law developments from the past few days. First up: the news that the FISC, on two separate occasions, issued orders authorizing surveillance of Paul Manafort's communications. Second: the news late last week that an as-yet-unnamed American citizen fighting for the Islamic State in Syria is now in US military custody and being held as an enemy combatant. And third: an update on the travel-ban litigation as ...
Sep 19, 2017•53 min
