The National Security Law Podcast: What’s In Your Wallet? A Subpoena!

Robert Chesney, Steve Vladeck
Wednesday, December 4, 2019, 3:26 PM

Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
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Welcome back to the National Security Law Podcast! Tune in as Professors Vladeck and Chesney debate and discuss the week’s national security law news, including:

  1. Trumplandia: The House Intelligence Committee’s report shines a spotlight on certain call records, leading some to question how such records lawfully are obtained by investigators. This leads to a discussion of the Fourth Amendment, the third-party doctrine, the Stored Communications Act and both grand jury and congressional subpoenas.
  2. More Trumplandia: The Second Circuit has ruled against an effort to prevent Deutsche Bank and Capital One from complying with a Congressional subpoena for Trump-related records, adding to the slew of cases on this topic.
  3. Adham Hassoun and indefinite immigration-law detention for dangerous persons: Back in episode 116 we noted that Hassoun had completed his 15-year sentence (following a conviction for involvement in a murder conspiracy under 18 USC 956(a)), but is being held pending removal…with little prospect for effecting that removal, given his stateless-status. He is now subject to the not-previously-used USA PATRIOT Act Section 412 authority, which involves an initial 7-day window for detention and then calls for semi-annual judicial review. The case presents both procedural due process and substantive due process issues.
  4. Designating Mexican drug cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations"—President Trump says this is in the works at last, so we review the legal and policy aspects.
  5. National Security Division Roundup: We offer brief notes on a few major recent developments in terrorism-related cases.

But it’s all about the frivolity, so stay till the end for our idle opinions on what ought to happen with the College Football Playoffs final four, and especially for our take on episode 4 of the Mandalorian.


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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