The lights dim at Smallwood.  There’s some grainy imagery here, some white noise there, as the military judge affixes his lapel mic and resumes the pretrial session at Guantanamo.  Four accused are in th...

Big news out of the Second Circuit today: a three-judge panel has affirmed the conviction and life sentence of Ahmed Ghailani, for his role in the U.S.

In advance of this week's hearings in the military commission case United States v. Mohammed et al, Brigadier General Mark Martins, Chief Prosecutor of the Military Commissions, delivered the attached re...

Almost-live from Maryland's Fort George G. Meade: a third day of CCTV-broadcasted proceedings in United  States v. Mohammed et. al.

The Hoover Institution has released Chapter 3 of our serialized book: Speaking the Law: The Obama Administration’s Addresses on National Security Law. The Introduction and Chapter 1 came out in March.

As part of our work on a chapter for an upcoming book on Madisonian thought and contemporary public policy, Ben and I wrote this piece for Security States about James Madison's vacillations on executive ...

The gavel bangs.  Argument on AE164 marches forward, with J. Connell III, Ammar al-Baluchi’s attorney, leading the defense’s broadside against the prohibition on defense motions for reconsideration, with...

Our recess ends; the afternoon’s secrecy-stravaganza resumes.  Now loose ends are tied, as defense counsel debate whether AE73-related motions, which were only moments ago submitted for resolution by the...

Under discussion this afternoon: secrecy rules.  The subject arises first in connection with AE73 D and G, defense bids to clarify or retract, respectively, a prior ruling.  This affirmed the government’...

It’s Connell-time.  Al-Baluchi’s attorney picks up with argument on AE200, and on the nexus between international law and classification law. (Again, his premise is that the military commission’s protect...

Having gained no purchase in federal district courts in countering NSA's telephony metadata program, privacy activists are attempting a different strategy: taking the fight directly to the United States ...

How long will the enhanced security state in America last?  Apparently, some think it will be "for the rest of time."  That has to be wrong. As readers of this blog know, I live on Capitol Hill and walk...

James Connell III argues his client’s position with respect to AE200.  That’s the defense’s attempt to have the case thrown out, or the death penalty removed as a punishment option, given an inconsistenc...

Trumpets sound, the flaming gong bangs, and a wave of applause overpowers Smallwood Hall, the CCTV facility at Fort Meade. It is here that we take in the sorta-live broadcast of pretrial proceedings in U...

As Yahoo News reports,the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has published an order granting Yahoo and the government's joint motion to allow Yahoo pre-publication access to FISC documents after dec...

I have now read both of the two major human rights reports released yesterday on civilian casualties in drone strikes---one by Amnesty International on strikes in Pakistan and the other by Human Rights W...

Good morning, y'all. Your correspondent stands ready once again to report on the day's events in the military commission case of United States v.

With reports released this week critical of US drone strikes and targeted killing from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and UN Special Rapporteur Ben Emmerson, this seems like a good moment to ...