The Insurrection Act Is No Exception to the Troops-at-Polls Ban
Congress restricted military deployments to election sites, even when a broader deployment authority might otherwise apply.
Deportation, Inc.: The Rise of the Immigration Enforcement Economy
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Introducing ‘Posting Through the Singularity’
A new semi-regular column of essays on law and computation, not quite ready for Substack
Lawfare Live: Debriefing the D.C. Circuit's Argument Over Contempt Inquiry
Watch the livestream on Sept. 29 at 2 p.m. ET.
Changing China’s Cyber Calculus
The U.S. needs a strategy to counter China’s leverage in cyberspace.
How Export Controls Can—and Cannot—Reduce the Risks of Open-Weight Models
Once model weights are published, developers lose control. Export controls can still work—but only at the right chokepoints.
The AI Threat We’re Not Talking About
AI employees are raising concerns about an extinction-level event. But there’s a more immediate threat.
Parsing the UN Fact-Finding Mission’s Report on U.S. Strikes in Iran
The UN Fact-Finding Commission concludes that the United States has committed war crimes. It could have said more to make a convincing case.
Lawfare & Libations: San Francisco Edition
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Donate today!Highlights
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The Insurrection Act Is No Exception to the Troops-at-Polls Ban
Congress restricted military deployments to election sites, even when a broader deployment authority might otherwise apply. -
Introducing ‘Posting Through the Singularity’
A new semi-regular column of essays on law and computation, not quite ready for Substack -
Changing China’s Cyber Calculus
The U.S. needs a strategy to counter China’s leverage in cyberspace. -
How Export Controls Can—and Cannot—Reduce the Risks of Open-Weight Models
Once model weights are published, developers lose control. Export controls can still work—but only at the right chokepoints. -
The AI Threat We’re Not Talking About
AI employees are raising concerns about an extinction-level event. But there’s a more immediate threat. -
Parsing the UN Fact-Finding Mission’s Report on U.S. Strikes in Iran
The UN Fact-Finding Commission concludes that the United States has committed war crimes. It could have said more to make a convincing case. -
America’s Samurai Myth
Reconsidering Obama’s Syria red line and its lessons for Iran. -
The Week That Was
Your weekly summary of everything on the site. -
The FBI Data Breach Is a Counterintelligence Disaster
Hackers stole thousands of FBI employees’ data, including about new hires and people in sensitive roles. It’s like giving a foreign adversary a gold mine. -
The Full Stack of U.S.-China Cyber Competition
A review of Ahana Datta Fasel, “Full Stack Spies: Cyber Espionage in the Age of US-China Competition” (Hurst, 2026). -
Bring On the AI Lawsuits
The latest edition of the Seriously Risky Business cybersecurity newsletter, now on Lawfare. -
New York Could Share Frontier AI Safety Reports Nationwide Without New Legislation
An existing financial-regulatory platform could provide a secure channel for states to share confidential frontier AI safety reports. -
Siege Warfare by Other Means: The U.S. Economic Measures Against Cuba
How the Trump Administration is using starvation and misery to achieve regime change in Cuba. -
International Law in the Cuban Missile Crisis
Although important for justifying the blockade of Cuba, international law did not meaningfully constrain the Kennedy administration during the crisis. -
Bootstrapping Frontier AI Governance by Mutualizing Risk
With frontier AI companies’ money on the line, a mutual insurer would enforce standards, peer review incidents, and pool safety research and development.
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With every new administration comes new promises and new actions on national security. But what’s “new” has often been proposed or even tried before—which means there’s a good chance Lawfare has already analyzed some of the legal and policy implications they present. So we’re making that past content readily accessible as it becomes newly relevant.
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The Return of Schedule F
The Trump administration has proposed new rules to remove due process protections for thousands of federal employees. -
Donald Trump and the Department of Justice
On the loyalty of lawyers and the attitude of voters -
Trump’s Attacks on Justice Department Independence, Then and Now
What the first Trump administration carried out slowly, the new administration is doing at once.
Documents
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White House Releases Executive Order Declaring a National Emergency Regarding the Electrical Grid
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White House Releases National Security Science & Technology Strategy
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Justice Department Releases Opinion on Military Arrests Near Borders
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White House Releases Executive Orders on Quantum Computing
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White House Releases Executive Order on AI
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Former Cuban President Raúl Castro Indicted
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Trump Administration Releases 2026 Counterterrorism Strategy
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Southern Poverty Law Center Indicted on Federal Fraud Charges
The Lawfare Podcast 
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Lawfare Daily: Did Washington Walk Into Beijing’s Trap? Xi’s State Visit with Jonathan Czin
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Lawfare Daily: The Policy Implications of the AI Vibe Shift
Discussing recent developments in the AI risk environment. -
Lawfare Daily: The Trials of the Trump Administration, September 25
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Watch the livestream on Sept. 29 at 2 p.m. ET.
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