The National Security Law Podcast: At Least There Are No Zombies…Yet

Robert Chesney, Steve Vladeck
Monday, March 9, 2020, 5:53 PM

Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
Brookings

Back-to-back episodes! After last week’s interview-focused show, we wanted to get right back into the mix with discussion and debate over the latest national security law news. Tune in for:

  • Beyond quarantine: What happens when local authorities declare an emergency and then bar people *released* from quarantine from being in the city? San Antonio wants to find out…
  • So Ken Cuccinelli is *not* the Acting Director at U.S.C.I.S., because he was not properly made the “first assistant” in the chain of succession. Or so says the other Randy Moss.
  • FISA FOIA fix? A court finds that when the White House said they declassified some Carter Page FISA material, but had not actually done so, FOIA’s national security exemption still applied as a result.
  • Peace with the Afghan Taliban? We will see. And we will see, too, what this might mean for “unraveling” the background premise that the law of armed conflict remains applicable as between the United States and al Qaeda-related detainees still in military detention at GTMO.
  • What does it signify to say that someone “loyally gets appointed”? A grammatical mess, perhaps, but the phrase nicely captures the current President’s (already familiar) understanding: if you work anywhere in his organization, personal loyalty is job one.
  • Loads of developments relating to the Trump administration’s immigration policies, particularly relating to asylum claimants.

But nevermind all that. Tune in just for the "Picard" frivolity at the end!


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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