9/11 at 25: The Legal Architecture of the War on Terror, Twenty-Five Years On

Twenty-five years since Sept. 11, 2001, much of the legal and institutional architecture erected in response to the terrorist attacks still stands. The Department of Homeland Security, which was created to fill the intelligence and law enforcement gaps the attacks had exposed, has become one of the largest federal agencies in the country. The 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force, which Congress passed to bless a military response to the attacks, remains on the books and has been used as legal justification for operations in various countries. Guantanamo Bay, which opened in 2002 to house “the worst of the worst” terrorists responsible for the attacks, has been home to more than 800 detainees over the years, 15 of whom remain there today, and none of whom have been tried for perpetrating the attacks. And law enforcement powers expanded in the name of counterterrorism, including expanded surveillance authorities and broadened material support statutes, have largely outlasted the initial threats that inspired them and have been repurposed for new circumstances.

Rather than focusing on the well-documented debates over whether the response to 9/11 was good or bad, or on the day’s enormity, Lawfare editors and contributors examine how 9/11 remains—or doesn’t—embedded in current legal and policy frameworks. Twenty-five years later, our editors and contributors set out to answer the question: What aren’t people seeing about that legacy?