Today's Headlines and Commentary

A generally light news day. Charlie Savage has this terrific piece in the New York Times on the GOP presidential candidate's views on executive power, based on their responses to a Times survey. The Times is collecting and posting each candidate's responses to questions over executive power online. 

The answers show that most of them see the commander in chief as having the authority to lawfully take extraordinary actions if he decides doing so is necessary to protect national security. Only Mr. Paul, the libertarian-leaning congressman from Texas, argued for a more limited view of presidential power. The views of the other four candidates who responded echoed in many respects expansive legal theories that were advanced by President George W. Bush. In certain significant ways, they dovetailed as well with the assertive posture taken by President Obama since taking office, like his expanded use of drones to kill terrorism suspects around the world — including a United States citizen. The answers come against the backdrop of a decade of disputes over the scope and limits of presidential authority. Because executive branch actions are often secret and courts rarely have jurisdiction to review them, the views of the president — and the lawyers he appoints — about the powers the Constitution gives him are far more than an academic discussion. Instead, in practice, a president’s views can influence such momentous matters as whether and how the country commits acts of warfare abroad, the rights of American citizens at home and the ability of government officials to keep information secret from lawmakers, the courts and the public.

The 9th Circuit yesterday gave telecommunications companies immunity for their role in the NSA wiretapping program. The AP covers the story (courtesy of the Politico). Philip Mudd, a former deputy director of the CTC and FBI intelligence advisor, has written this Washington Post op-ed opposing the NDAA's "misguided" position on detainees. Mark Thompson over at Time's Battleland blog provides his download on the DOD IG report on retired military analysts. Despite all those reports that terrorist organizations are tweeting their messages and such, their efforts don't seem to have had an impact on their recruitment numbers. Read NPR's Dina Temple-Raston's story and listen to it on All Things Considered. It appears that the Turkish airstrikes in the Iraq border region killed cigarette smugglers between the ages of 17 and 20, not members of the separatist PKK. Sebnem Arsu reports at the New York Times. Headlines and Commentary will be back in 2012. In the meantime, for more interesting law and security-related articles, follow us on Twitter, and visit the Georgetown Center on National Security and the Law’s Security Law Brief as well as the Fordham Law Center on National Security’s Morning Brief. Feel free to email me noteworthy articles we may have missed at wakeman.lawfare@gmail.com.