The National Security Law Podcast

This episode is a bit different than normal.  Instead of tearing through the latest developments in the wide world of national security law, Professors Vladeck and Chesney instead provide a deep-dive overview of military commissions.  The explain what that label does and does not refer to, survey the pre-9/11 history (with an emphasis on key Supreme Court decisions like  Ex parte Milligan  and  Ex...

It has only been a few days since Episode 19, but Steve and Bobby are worried that fellow national security law geeks won’t have enough @nslpodcast to enjoy during long Memorial Day Weekend roadtrips.  That, plus they want to make sure you are up to speed on two big new rulings by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, both of which went against the Executive Branch.  First, the en banc Fourth...

School’s out for summer…but the National Security Law Podcast keeps trucking along.  In Episode 19, we find that the suddenly-student-less professors have used their newfound free time to…wait for it…add  music to their intro.  And just in case that brief riff is not enough, Chesney and Vladeck do go on to discuss some actual law and policy matters.  They start with the app...

The guys came back to the office tonight for a rare evening recording session, inspired by a combination of hot-off-the-presses news about the president talking out of turn to the Russians, lack of interest in the Wizards-Celtics game, and a general inability to find another time to record this week.  And what’s in it for you?  An extended discussion of the significance of the report earlier...

Yes Episode 16 just dropped yesterday, but given the firing of Jim Comey we felt duty bound to get back to the microphones ASAP.  And so here you will find Bobby and Steve reviewing and debating the legal and policy backdrop to, and fallout, from yesterday’s shocking news.  Tune in for a discussion that covers the power of the president to appoint and remove the FBI Director, the implication...

In this episode, Professors Vladeck and Chesney walk listeners through a recent proposal by Rep. Adam Schiff to replace the 2001 and 2002 AUMFs with a new “consolidated” AUMF that would explicitly name the Islamic State while also tweaking current authorities in certain interesting ways.  Before that, however, they find plenty of time to argue about the significance of the latest twist...

In this surveillance-heavy episode, Professors Chesney and Vladeck dig into a raft of news about foreign-intelligence collection authorities.  They open with an overview of how Section 702 collection authority works, and then unpack the recent news that NSA is dropping the “about” collection component of Upstream collection under 702.  They explain it all, including the obvious and per...

In this episode, Professors Chesney and Vladeck run through the array of potential criminal charges against Julian Assange and Wikileaks (in light of recent rumblings that DOJ has revived that possibility), and they discuss the prospects for the First Amendment objections that would surely follow. This leads into a discussion of the charges that Mike Flynn one day might face, and that in turn prom...

Listeners who are tired of listening to just Professors Vladeck and Chesney on this show can take heart!  This week they are joined by special guest Matt Tait, better known online as Pwn All the Things.  Matt’s presence leads to an extended discussion of the Shadowbrokers dump of exploits allegedly stolen from NSA, the US government’s Vulnerabilities Equities Process, and much more.  M...

In this episode, Professors Chesney and Vladeck go deep into the weeds regarding the legal issues raised by President Trump’s decision to launch missiles at the Shayrat Airfield in Syria, in the wake of the sarin gas attack in Idlib.  They discuss that decision in comparison to the 2011 decision by President Obama to use airstrikes in Libya, and along the way grapple with separation of war p...

In today’s episode, Professors Vladeck and Chesney come to grips yet again with surveillance law and policy issues thanks to the ever-fascinating Trump/Russia story, this time accounting for the President’s accusation that then-National Security Advisor Susan Rice committed a crime.  After droning on and on about targeting, minimization, incidental collection, masking, unmasking, and l...

In this hour-long episode, Professors Steve Vladeck and Bobby Chesney open by unpacking the ins-and-outs of two Guantanamo military commissions cases currently seeking Supreme Court review: the al-Nashiri case (which could give the Court a chance to determine whether an armed conflict existed with al Qaeda prior to 9/11) and Bahlul (which could give the Court a chance to settle, at long last, whet...

In this episode, [USperson 1] and [USperson 2] discuss whether the law was violated by [USperson 3] when [he/she] spoke to [USpersons 4-17] about alleged surveillance of [USperson 18] or perhaps various [USpersons] working for [USperson 18]’s campaign.  They also discuss the appearance at [USuniversity 1] by [USperson 19] in which [he/she] did not talk about [USperson 18], but did have lots...

Episode 8 (about 58 minutes long) finds Professors Vladeck and Chesney discussing the legal, policy, and institutional issues raised by reports that President Trump has authorized CIA to resume control of drone operations in some circumstances, and that he also has added certain parts of Yemen and Somalia to the current list of zones of active hostilities.  They also provide an update on litigatio...

In this episode, Professors Chesney and Vladeck live up to their new motto (see the episode title) by wading into the confusion surrounding a pair of recent presidential claims with significant national security law implications: President Trump’s claim that the Obama administration wiretapped him (or his campaign), and his allegation about the “GTMO recidivism” rate as between t...

In this episode, Professors Vladeck and Chesney get into the weeds of the controversy surrounding the statements Attorney General Sessions made during his confirmation process concerning contacts with Russians.  Is there a credible case for perjury here?  They don’t seem to agree, but you’ll have to listen to find out where they part ways.  They also foreshadow future discussions regar...

In this episode, Professors Chesney and Vladeck consider whether the Supreme Court is poised to use a border-shooting case (Hernandez v. Mesa) to expand Fourth or Fifth Amendment rights for non-citizens outside the United States, and what this might mean for other scenarios ranging from drone strikes to SIGINT collection and network investigative techniques the FBI might use with overseas effect....

In this episode, Professors Vladeck and Chesney come to grips with a number of legal issues raised by the Mike Flynn story.  What the heck is the Logan Act and was it perhaps violated?  What about the possibility of a charge for making false statements to the FBI?  Was the underlying surveillance lawful? Were minimization rules violated? What about the folks who leaked the story?  After all that,...

In this episode, Professors Chesney and Vladeck dive deep into the latest iteration of the Trump Administration’s draft executive order on military detention, Guantanamo, and the Islamic State, a task that leads them into an extended discussion of: the legal consequences of bringing an Islamic State detainee to GTMO, the geographic reach of habeas corpus, the fuzzy caselaw on military detention ap...

In this episode, Professors Vladeck and Chesney focus on two major developments: the Trump Administration’s sudden decision to suspend entry into the United States for persons hailing from seven countries, and a rare boots-on-the-ground raid conducted by U.S. Special Operations Forces against an AQAP compound in Yemen.  They close by offering worthless Super Bowl predictions.

In the first episode, Professors Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladeck walk listeners through some of the key issues raised by an alleged draft executive order on interrogation, detention, and prosecution of terrorism suspects.  They also find time to speculate about the playoff prospects of the New York Mets.