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Pentagon Releases New Procedures for Intelligence Collection
Editor's Note: This article has been updated to more accurately reflect the circumstances under which a defense intelligence component may collect U.S. personal information inside the United States. -
Obama's Legal Legacy of Light Footprint Warfare
We have a new piece in The Washington Quarterly, titled “The Legal Legacy of Light-Footprint Warfare.” President Obama’s approach to military intervention has generally emphasized stealthy and often long... -
Israel’s New Counterterrorism Law
Last month, the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) passed comprehensive legislation overhauling domestic counterterrorism authorities. When it enters into force in November, the new Counterterrorism Law will r... -
A Response to the Government's Brief in Capt. Smith v. Obama
The government has just filed its brief responding to Captain Smith’s challenge to the president’s unilateral war against ISIS. The government’s lengthy brief cites more than eighty judicial decisions, b... -
The Obama Administration’s Views on the Legality of Intervention in Syria Without Congressional or U.N. Security Council Support
As the Obama administration approaches its end, it is interesting to watch former Obama administration officials debate and disagree about its legal legacy. The most recent episode came in response to th... -
The Obama Legal Team and the Lawfulness of Attacking Assad
Editor's Note: This piece also appears on the Power Wars blog and Just Security. -
The Misbegotten Court of Military Commission Review
Anyone following the Guantánamo military commissions would do well to read Bob Loeb and Helen Klein's trenchant take on last Friday's D.C. Circuit decision in In re Khadr, in which the Court of Appeals d... -
Mullah Mansour as a "Continuous" Threat: Was the AUMF Strictly Necessary?
The DOD airstrike that may have killed Taliban leader Mullah Mansour is interesting, from a legal perspective, at many levels. -
Oversight of DOD Kill-Capture Missions Outside Theaters of Major Hostilities: What May Change Under the Next NDAA?
Despite the substantial overlap between counterterrorism activities undertaken by the CIA and JSOC, we tend to pay a lot more attention to the details of the congressional oversight framework for the for... -
Classified Legislation: Tracking Congress’s Library of Secret Law
Most citizens assume that all of the law Congress writes is public. That is not, in fact, true. Our general norm of publishing law has a significant and largely overlooked legislative exception: classifi... -
The Lawfare Podcast: A Conversation on Global Intelligence Oversight with Sam Rascoff and Zach Goldman
This week on the show, Zachary Goldman and Samuel Rascoff of the NYU Center on Law and Security discuss their new edited volume, Global Intelligence Oversight: Governing Security in the Twentry-First Cen... -
The ISIS Lawsuit and the Perverse Effects of National Security Litigation
Last week, U.S. Army Captain Nathan Michael Smith sued the U.S. Government in federal court, seeking a declaration that Obama’s war against ISIS is illegal. Jack Goldsmith and Marty Lederman have put for...
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