Bobby Chesney is the Charles I. Francis Professor in Law and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the University of Texas School of Law. He also serves as the Director of UT-Austin's interdisciplinary research center the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law. His scholarship encompasses a wide range of issues relating to national security and the law, including detention, targeting, prosecution, covert action, and the state secrets privilege; most of it is posted here. Along with Ben Wittes and Jack Goldsmith, he is one of the co-founders of the blog.
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A primer on the New York Times story about possible changes to the U.S. policy on lethal force.
In this week’s episode, Professors Chesney and Vladeck explore three big national security law developments from the past few days.
First up: The news that the FISC, on two separate occasions, issued orders authorizing surveillance of Paul Manafort’s communications.
Second: The news late last week that an as-yet-unnamed American citizen fighting for the Islamic State in Syria is now in US military custody and being held as an enemy combatant.
And third: An update on the travel-ban litigation as it moves into the Supreme Court.
The Pentagon has confirmed that an American citizen is being held in U.S. military custody in Syria or Iraq as an enemy combatant
We have a special treat in this off-cycle episode! NSA GC Glenn Gerstell is in Austin to speak to our students here at UT, and (no doubt against his better judgment) he agreed to sit for an interview with Professors Chesney and Vladeck. The conversation focuses in particular on the nature, operation, and criticisms of Section 702 collection authority. As you probably know, Section 702 is scheduled to expire at the end of December, and there is certain to be a fascinating, high-stakes Congressional fight over its renewal in the months ahead.
Will this year’s Supreme Court term be packed with cases relating to military courts? In this week’s show, Professors Chesney and Vladeck explore the possibility. The Supreme Court currently has before it an array of petitions for review involving military court questions.
In today’s episode, Professors Chesney and Vladeck spend time with three legal topics (before spiraling off into some ill-informed commentary on the college football season). First, building off a report that FBI arrests of Islamic State supporters inside the US have declined significantly recently, they discuss why such a change may have occurred and what it signifies for the role of law enforcement in counterterrorism policy.
In this week’s episode, Professors Chesney and Vladeck take advantage of a relatively quiet week for national security law developments in order to range across a number of topics. Being in Texas, we are all quite focused on the terrible tragedy unfolding thanks to Hurricane Harvey, and so your hosts open with a survey of various legal issues that could have arisen in the context of this emergency (though, fortunately, none seem to have).