The National Security Law Podcast: Lawful But Awful

Robert Chesney, Steve Vladeck
Thursday, November 21, 2019, 9:18 AM

Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
Brookings

Episode 144 is here! It was no easy task to sort out which topics to discuss this week, but in the end the Trumplandia segment prevailed over almost all the others. The end result? Tune in to hear Professors Chesney and Vladeck discuss and debate:

  1. The latest developments in the Impeachment Inquiry (including today’s testimony from Ambassador Sondland).
  2. President Trump’s decision to issue pardons to two soldiers facing murder charges and to restore rank to a Navy SEAL previously convicted for posing for pictures with a dead detainee.
  3. The Trump Administration’s apparent decision to alter the longstanding U.S. position that Israeli settlements in occupied territory violate international law.
  4. The latest twist in the two Mazars subpoena cases, including the administrative stay issued by Chief Justice John Roberts in of them.
  5. Attorney General Barr’s barn-burner of a speech to the Federalist Society’s National Convention, which offered a controversial take on an array of presidential power and national security law issues (including a surprise appearance by the Supreme Court’s 2008 Boumediene decision (cast in the unlikely role of most-outrageous infringement of Article II powers decision ever).
  6. A district court decision in the Muthana case, resolving it on narrow factual grounds.

From there, it’s a pop culture spoiler fest, with reviews of the first episode of the new season of The Crown and the first two episodes of The Mandalorian. Hey, how about a cross-over between those shows?


Robert (Bobby) Chesney is the Dean of the University of Texas School of Law, where he also holds the James A. Baker III Chair in the Rule of Law and World Affairs at UT. He is known internationally for his scholarship relating both to cybersecurity and national security. He is a co-founder of Lawfare, the nation’s leading online source for analysis of national security legal issues, and he co-hosts the popular show The National Security Law Podcast.
Steve Vladeck is a professor of law at the University of Texas School of Law. A 2004 graduate of Yale Law School, Steve clerked for Judge Marsha Berzon on the Ninth Circuit and Judge Rosemary Barkett on the Eleventh Circuit. In addition to serving as a senior editor of the Journal of National Security Law & Policy, Steve is also the co-editor of Aspen Publishers’ leading National Security Law and Counterterrorism Law casebooks.

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