In my discussion earlier this week of some of the problems with relying on historical practice to support a constitutional claim of presidential authority to initiate military operations without congress...

We at Duke University are initiating a year-long project  in which a number of us will be considering and discussing the relationship between law and custom.  In connection with that project, I have star...

Michael Glennon, a longtime critic of presidential war unilateralism, has written a sharp critique of the April 1 OLC Opinion in support of the Libya intervention.  The conclusion (footnotes omitted): OL...

The United States is still bombing, under NATO command.  And Congress, which has not authorized this action, is still dithering.  If this pattern continues for another month (or two), the administration ...

OLC’s Libya memorandum (see here for Jack’s assessment, and here for a point-by-point overview) concludes as a matter of constitutional law that President Obama did not need approval from Congress in ord...

Further to Jack's post summarizing the OLC opinion on Libya, here is a point-by-point summary of the document's legal analysis (I agree very much with Jack's take on the implications of all this): 1.

The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel has just published its opinion in support of its view that “the President had constitutional authority, as Commander in Chief and Chief Executive and purs...

Steve Aftergood is reporting at Secrecy News: The Senate Intelligence Committee is proposing to punish leaks of classified information by authorizing intelligence agencies to seize the pension benefits o...

As part of my blood oath to spend the next few years writing on subjects other than detention, I have just released this paper on the inadequacy of privacy as a conceptual framework for regulating person...

Senator Rand Paul has attached the following Amendment to S.

President Obama’s speech was a full-throated defense of his deployment of U.S.

At the American Society of International Law annual meeting yesterday, State Department Legal Advisor Harold Koh gave this statement on the legality of the use of force in Libya.  The international law j...