The National Security Law Podcast

We have much to discuss in the world of national security and law this week, including but not limited to the worst-kept secret in the world. And we have some grade-A frivolity if you are able to stay tuned to the end.  To wit: Doe v. Mattis and the district court ruling enjoining the government from transferring Doe to Saudi Arabia.  Wait, what’s that?  The identity of the receiving state i...

Well, we’re back, 24 hours after dropping Episode 69. Why? 2018, that’s why! Seriously, lot’s to discuss: A deep-dive into the draft 2018 AUMF from Senators Corker and Kaine.  Tune in for a VERY detailed review and debate. Meanwhile, Doe v. Mattis has suddenly moved into high gear.  Looks like a transfer may be in the works, but we predict weeks of further litigation. The Supreme...

In light of the amazing developments last Friday, we decided to move the show up to today.  Tune in for discussion of five things that happened just that one day: A deep dive on the international law framework implicated by the US/UK/FR airstrikes on Syrian government facilities associated with chemical weapons (with a special emphasis on the UK’s asserted humanitarian intervention justifica...

Welcome to episode 68!  On tap for this week: Tom Bossert is out, and Michael Cohen is in trouble.  We’ll talk mostly about the latter, with an emphasis on the way that attorney-client privilege law and procedure interacts with search warrants. Fresh CAATSA sanctions, this time targeting Russian oligarchs.  The Treasury Department is distinguishing itself as quite strong on Russia issues. Th...

Welcome back to the National Security Law Podcast!  This week, Professors Vladeck and Chesney review the following recent developments: A drone strike against AQIM targets in southwestern Libya: What if anything does this tell us about the Trump administration’s legal and policy positions relating to the geographic and organizational scope of the post-9/11 armed conflict? The firing of VA Se...

Welcome back for another episode of the National Security Law Podcast, with Professors Steve Vladeck and Bobby Chesney.  It has been another not-at-all slow week.  On tap for today: The CLOUD Act : It’s now the law of the land.  We will go into the law’s particulars  next  week, but for now we do want to address what passage means for the pending Supreme Court case involving the govern...

With apologies for short shownotes, here are the headlines for this week’s NSL Podcast: The McCabe firing The prospect of legislation permitting judicial review of any decision to fire Mueller An update of the declaration of Secretary Mattis explaining why he removed the GTMO military commission’s Convening Authority and his legal advisor A decision by the Foreign Intelligence Surveill...

So there you are on the beach for spring break, drink in hand and headphones on.  Time for some…National Security Law Podcast!  We’re back with a special midweek episode because, well, we’ll never keep up with the news if we wait till next week (and we are worried you’ll start listening to music–gasp!–if we leave you alone for too long!). So here’s what&#8...

Out on spring break but still listening to the podcast?  We love it!  Actually, your hosts Professors Chesney and Vladeck are out on spring break too, but before they left town they sat down to record episode 63 on Friday March 9th.  If things have gone crazy over the weekend and you are surprised they aren’t discussing them here, well, that’s why! This week’s show, at any rate,...

It’s not every week on this show that we get to talk about the Trade Expansion Act of 1962  and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade !  And if that’s not an appealing hook to get you to listen, we don’t know what is.  Ahem…. Let’s try that again.  On this week’s show, Professors Vladeck and Chesney cover a mix of new and old topics: President Trump’s...

No shortage of topics this week, but then again there was no shortage last week, or before that, or…ever.  So, what’s on tap?  Tune in to hear Professors Chesney and Vladeck explore: A host of Supreme Court developments, including action relating to DACA, immigration detention and the due process clause, Patchak and the question whether Congress can direct courts to dismiss a class of...

An over-long episode with a short title to reflect a very busy–and somewhat bizarre–eight day stretch in the wide world of national security law.  This week, your hosts Professors Chesney and Vladeck weigh in on: The Supreme Court’s decision in  Rubin v. Islamic Republic of Iran The Supreme Court’s denial of  cert.  in  CareFirst The Supreme Court’s telling inaction o...

We don’t lack for topics this week!  In today’s episode, Professors Vladeck and Chesney eat a number of cookies while talking about the following: Rachel Brand steps down at DOJ.  As George III might say, what comes next?  Your hosts review the order of succession. A triple update on military commission matters: Was the firing of Convening Authority Harvey Rishikoff linked to a possibl...

Sorry that football season is over?  Lucky for you, the National Security Law Podcast has no offseason!  And lucky for your co-hosts, the world keeps generating new topics for conversation and debate.  This week, Professors Vladeck and Chesney cover four main topics: The president’s “treason” remarks yesterday in Cincinnati The next stages in the Nunes #Mehmo controversy: What pr...

President Trump has declassified the Nunes Memo and it now is available to the public .  Your hosts–Professors Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladeck–give it a deep-dive review here in a special-edition podcast episode.  Tune in to hear them discuss: whether there are any factual claims in the memo which ( *if*  true) are worthy of concern (preview: they single out two); whether any such conc...

You might not want to watch the State of the Unio n tonight, but don’t miss this episode of the podcast! This week we cover: The missing Russia sanctions?   A statute enacted last summer appears at first blush to require the Trump administration to sanction people doing significant business with Russian military and intelligence entities, starting this week.  It didn’t happen, and some...

Happy anniversary, y’all!  It’s been one full year since we launched this podcast, and we are very grateful for all our listeners.  Here’s hoping there is *less* to discuss in our second year! This week, we’ve got: The FISA Amendments Reform Act: How exactly does the new warrant requirement work, what it do with “about” collection, and how did it approach the qu...

And we’re back, with another weekly dose of national security legal news and analysis.  Fresh off the stove this week we have: Dalmazzi – Steve is just returned from his first Supreme Court argument, in the  Dalmazzi  litigation regarding whether military officers may serve both as CAAF and CMCR judges.  Tune in to discover why the room erupted in laughter right before Steve began his...

In this week’s episode, Professors Chesney and Vladeck take on three sets of issues under the national security law heading: ACLU v. Mattis (the US citizen enemy combatant case): Since the last episode, the government has permitted the ACLU to communicate with John Doe, who does indeed want ACLU to pursue habeas relief on his behalf.  This quickly led to an exchange of filings disputing whet...

Merry New Year! 2018 is underway, but in today’s episode we are looking back at 2017.  More specifically, we are looking back to predictions made in early 2017 regarding the changes President Trump surely would be making to certain executive orders and presidential directives relating to national security.  How did those predictions turn out?  It’s rather complicated. Tune in to find o...

Well, 2017 is almost done.  No doubt there are a few more kicks-in-the-pants on the way before it’s all said and done, but hey, we can at least offer you one final episode of this podcast!  So, you’ve got that going for you, which is nice… Four topics today: ACLU v. Mattis – Judge Chutkan has ruled.  It’s brief, it’s favorable to ACLU, and it’s got a good...

Are your other podcasts letting you down by taking a holiday break?  Never fear, National Security Law Podcast is here! With two host who would much rather be podcasting than grading exams, you are assured of an uninterrupted holiday stream of national security legal analysis, not to mention ill-informed takes on…movie soundtracks? Seems your hosts may have been in the eggnog a bit early thi...

In this week’s episode, Professors Steve Vladeck and Bobby Chesney pick up the thread on a handful of familiar issues, and introduce a few new ones as well. Interrogation:    Their first topic is a blend, actually: the case of Akayed Ullah, who attempted to set off a pipe bomb in New York City yesterday.  Ullah was taken into law enforcement custody, but soon some quarters were calling for h...

In this week’s episode, Professors Chesney and Vladeck catch up with a number of 2017’s most-persistent national security law sagas. For starters, there’s the indictment and plea agreement of Michael Flynn.  What does the charge signify, and what does this imply for the larger Mueller investigation? This leads directly to a discussion of whether it is possible, as a legal matter,...

And…they’re back!  Fresh off of Thanksgiving, Professors Chesney and Vladeck are (all too) fired up to discuss the latest national security law news (not to mention a bunch of stuff that just isn’t relevant to this (or any decent) podcast).  This week some familiar storylines resume, and a few new ones appear: First up: The slowly-unfolding saga of the still-unidentified U.S. cit...