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Recently circulated by the United States in New York, in conjunction with the larger campaign against ISIS: a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) draft resolution aiming to reduce the rising threat po...
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The Islamic State released another horrifying beheading video this weekend. A video posted on Saturday shows brutal murder of David Haines, a British aid worker who was working in Syria when he was captu...
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The New York Times has an oped this morning by a philosophy professor named Firmin DeBrabander worrying that drone warfare heralds the end of democracy in America. No, I am not making that up or even exa...
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Editor’s Note: The United States has not suffered a rash of terrorist attacks in the 13 years since 9/11. Indeed, this period has proven less bloody at home than the 1970s, hardly remembered as a decade ...
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Over the last several days, Administration officials have tried valiantly to explain the Administration’s surprising 11th hour discovery that the 2001 AUMF and indeed the 2002 AUMF provide a domestic law...
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This week's episode: A roundtable discussion of the politics and law of congressional authorization and the military campaign against ISIS. Bobby, Wells, Foreign Policy magazine's Shane Harris and I held...
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Dominating Lawfare this week was President Obama’s Wednesday speech detailing his plans to “destroy” and “degrade” ISIS.
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I always thought the 2002 AUMF was an obvious basis for air strikes against the Islamic State, easily in Iraq and possibly (given the right circumstances) in Syria. Today Charlie Savage reports that “th...
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The Wall Street Journal reports that the U.S. military has began setting in motion an expanded campaign against ISIS militants that will include airstrikes in Iraq and Syria, as well as military training...
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In late August, I suggested several possible theories the Administration might invoke to argue that the use of force against ISIS in Syria is consistent with international law. In the wake of President O...
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Secretary of State Kerry said yesterday:
We're engaged in a major counterterrorism operation [against the Islamic State], and it's going to be a long-term counterterrorism operation. I think war is the ...
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I had a pretty harsh reaction to the administration’s claim that Congress in the 2001 AUMF authorized force against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. (For a different view, see Marty Lederman’s post.) While I th...
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Late last week, the Department of Justice released two memos authored by Lawfare's own Jack Goldsmith back when he was the head of the Office of Legal Counsel ("OLC") in the Bush Administration. The memo...
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Proceeding in lockstep with a general chill in relations brought about by the Ukraine crisis, the United States and the Russian Federation are currently at odds over compliance with international arms tr...
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The Foreign Intelligence Court of Review ("FISCR") issued this order today. It concerns the FISC's 2008 opinion in In Re Directives, an appeal brought by Yahoo! and regarding directives for warrantless e...
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“If you threaten America, you will find no safe haven,” President Obama said last night in a highly anticipated statement outlining his strategy to “destroy” ISIS militants.
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On this day of remembrance, the three prior Secretaries of the Department of Homeland Security have issued a joint letter calling on Congress to reorganize itself and streamline oversight of DHS. I can ...
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That is the topic of my essay at Time.com in reaction to the announcement yesterday that the Obama administration believes the 2001 AUMF authorizes force against the Islamic State today. The essay begin...
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Like Bobby, Wells, and Ben, I, too, was surprised to discover that the Obama Administration's legal theory (for the moment) appears to be that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) can be targe...