Katherine Pompilio and Benjamin Wittes introduced a dataset of 300 immigration habeas corpus cases in which courts found that the federal government failed to comply with judicial orders. Pompilio and Wittes described examples of a range of violations—missed filings, delayed releases, unauthorized transfers, failure to return property—that have occurred since the early months of the second Trump administration.
On Lawfare Live, Wittes sat down with Anna Bower, Molly Roberts, and Roger Parloff, to discuss the oral arguments at the Supreme Court in the birthright citizenship case, a judge’s order to pause the White House’s ballroom construction, possible legal challenges to President Trump’s new executive order on elections, and more.
Loren Voss and Roberts examined how Trump’s new executive order would achieve its purported goal of heightening restrictions on mail-in ballots. The duo explained that the order likely runs afoul of the Constitution and is the newest step taken by Trump to call into question the integrity of U.S. elections.
Peter Beck shared Trump’s new executive order restricting mail-in ballots entitled, “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections,” which purports to expand federal control over state-run elections in order to crack down on election fraud.
Eric Columbus argued that the Department of Justice’s sweeping demand for state voter rolls lacks legal footing and is unlikely to succeed under judicial scrutiny. Columbus explained that the effort is likely less about enforcing election law than about casting doubt on election integrity—regardless of the results in court.
Bower examined how Judge J.P. Boulee may rule on Fulton County’s motion to compel the return of its 2020 presidential election ballots from the FBI after listening to arguments in a day-long evidentiary hearing.
Peyton Baker, Nick Bednar, and Amy Wildermuth examined the reasoning and implications of a recent Merit Systems Protection Board decision that reclassified immigration court judges as inferior officers subject to at-will removal.
Roberts unpacked the arguments made in a March 31 hearing over whether the Department of Defense complied with an earlier ruling striking down the Pentagon’s press access restrictions. The hearing focused on a new dispute between the government and the New York Times over the Pentagon’s revised policy.
On Lawfare Daily, Wittes sat down with Bower, Roberts, and Parloff to discuss Judge Rita Lin’s order granting a preliminary injunction in Anthropic’s suit challenging its supply chain designation, a hearing in Fulton County’s suit over the FBI seizure of 2020 presidential election ballots from the Fulton County election office, a new push from the Trump administration to investigate New York Attorney General Letitia James, and more.
On Rational Security, Scott R. Anderson sat down with Kate Klonick, Kevin Frazier, and Bower to unpack a recent ruling in Anthropic’s lawsuit against the Defense Department for its designation of the artificial intelligence (AI) company as a supply chain risk, the global supply chain effects of Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, NASA’s Artemis II mission to orbit the moon, and more.
J. Dana Stuster reviewed Vali Nasr’s book, “Iran’s Grand Strategy: A Political History,” on Iran’s history and shifts in its security environment over the past century. Stuster applied the lessons learned from Nasr’s narrative to better understand Tehran’s strategy in the current conflict between the U.S., Israel, and Iran.
On Lawfare Daily, Ariane Tabatabai sat down with John Ghazvinian to discuss the key events in the history of U.S.-Iran relations that have shaped the countries’ relationship today, their perceptions of one another, and more.
Yuval Shany and Amichai Cohen unpacked the Israeli Defense Forces’ military advocate general’s decision to withdraw charges against soldiers accused of abusing a Palestinian detainee at Sde Teiman. Shany and Cohen argued that the case and its resolution may indirectly endorse problematic right-wing narratives in Israel and further weaken perceptions of accountability within the Israeli military.
On Lawfare Daily, Anderson sat down with Joel Braunold to discuss the latest developments in the Israeli-Palestine conflict, including a spike in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, the new Israeli military offensive in southern Lebanon, its implications for Israel’s parliamentary elections later this year, the impacts from the ongoing conflict in Iran, and more.
Ivonne Duarte-Peña argued that despite major sanctions relief, Syria remains economically isolated because lingering restrictions and weak financial governance deter banks and investors. Duarte-Peña suggested that Syria should fully reconnect to the global economy by implementing reforms to meet international financial and anti-corruption standards.
Rachel Alpert argued that the U.S. embargo on Cuba is unusually constrained by statute, which hinders the president’s ability to adjust sanctions and act quickly in crisis and limits U.S. policy options in the event of political change in Cuba.
On Lawfare No Bull, Marissa Wang shared the audio from the Senate Intelligence Committee’s 2026 Worldwide Threats hearing, in which Tulsi Gabbard, John Ratcliffe, Kash Patel, William Hartman, and James Adams testified about critical intelligence issues facing the U.S. in the coming year, including the ongoing war in Iran, the Russia-Ukraine War, cyberthreats posed by China and Russia, foreign threats to U.S. elections, and more.
Ronald J. Deibert explored the broader national security implications of allowing private companies to conduct offensive cyber operations on behalf of the U.S. government. Deibert explained that this shift towards privatization could create cybersecurity risks, complicate oversight mechanisms, provoke unpredictable countermeasures, undermine international norms, and more.
Glenn S. Gerstell described the current debate over reauthorizing Section 702 of FISA as the expiration deadline approaches, outlining the concerns of abuse and disagreements over the inclusion of warrant requirements and data purchases. Gerstell recommended that Congress should hold off on making drastic changes to the national security authority and reauthorize Section 702 before it is too late.
On Lawfare Daily and in Michael R. Dreeben’s opening remarks from the joint Lawfare and Georgetown Law event, “Installing Updates to ECPA,” Dreeben discussed how Congress and the Supreme Court have addressed online privacy issues, the evolution of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, its relation to Fourth Amendment privacy and search protections, and where the law stands now.
In the latest edition of the Seriously Risky Business cybersecurity newsletter, Tom Uren unpacked the race in the AI industry to develop the best AI models to identify cyber vulnerabilities, how Russia has turned to a Starlink competitor in its ongoing war against Ukraine, and more.
Klonick unpacked how a directive from the Department of State instructing U.S. embassies to use Elon Musk’s social platform, X, in coordinated campaigns to counter foreign propaganda is indicative of a broader shift in the relationship between government and tech companies towards the normalization of social media as a tool of statecraft.
On Lawfare Daily, Renée DiResta sat down with Nathaniel Lubin and Philine Widmer to discuss how a platform’s algorithms and most trusted creators work together to shape what users see online and how they interpret it, the implications of this online influence, the future of political influence in an increasingly digital environment, and more.
On Scaling Laws, Frazier sat down with Nicholas Bagley to discuss how the Abundance Agenda—a philosophy focused on solving artificial scarcity by lowering regulatory and cost barriers—fits with AI policy and what this nexus means for the future of legal education and governance.
Justin Curl and Mihir Kshirsagar unpacked how the decision in United States v. Heppner will affect access to legal resources driven by AI. The duo examined how the court’s reasoning risks undermining attorney-client privilege, limits access to legal protections depending on a user’s resources, and discourages beneficial uses of AI in legal preparation.
On Scaling Laws, Rep. Nick Begich (R-Alaska) joined Frazier to unpack the current state of AI policy in Congress, Alaska’s role as a leader in developing AI infrastructure, the use of AI in Rep. Begich’s office operations, and more.
And that was the week that was.
