The National Security Law Podcast: Is This a Buddy Podcast?
Spotted: A rare episode of the National Security Law Podcast clocking in at under one hour! And yet there was much to discuss, including:
Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
Spotted: A rare episode of the National Security Law Podcast clocking in at under one hour! And yet there was much to discuss, including:
- T-Shirts!!!! At long last, the much-anticipated NSL Podcast t-shirts are for sale. All profits go to charity (ALS Texas, to be exact; they support patients and research for victims of ALS). Start shopping now!
- Detainee Stuff: We’ve got an all-too-predictable Doe v. Mattis update, and a set of notes about the denial of cert. for GTMO detainee Saifullah Paracha (who made an ill-fated bid to challenge GTMO transfer restrictions as bills of attainder). Perhaps most interesting: the reminder that Justice Gorsuch will recuse on GTMO matters that in some sufficient fashion touched upon his service in DOJ circa 2004-05.
- Courts & Accountability Stuff: The cert. petition in Hernandez II survived the First Monday in October, with the Court calling for the views of the Solicitor General.
- Mil Coms Stuff: The CMCR has emerged with an opinion! But, no, it’s not about the abatement issue, at least not in a helpful way. It’s a ruling about the issues raised by former Judge Spath’s new gig as an Immigration Judge. Tune in to hear the sound of Steve’s head exploding…
- Use of Force Stuff: We’ve got some recommended reading for you: the International Law Association’s long-awaited “Report on the Use of Force.” This document is a handy primer on the jus ad bellum/UN Charter rules relating to force, armed attack, and aggression. We give a brief TLDR, and then use that as a springboard to discuss…
- Staying in Syria to Boot Out…Iran? News that the US military might be tasked with staying in Syria in a post-Islamic State mode (in order to counterbalance or even drive out the Iranian military presence) raises some hard questions both as a matter of the UN Charter and domestic separation of powers law. Your hosts can’t manage to generate much debate over this one; without further facts, it’s hard to see how such a mission could be squared with either set of rules.
- Trumplandia: Both the Rosenstein Watch and the Sessions Watch are at threat condition: yellows. Don’t expect much drama there until after the election, we think.
But nevermind all that, for we have grade-A frivolity this week: What exactly qualifies a movie to be a “Buddy Movie,” and what are the classics of the genre?
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.
