The Week That Was: All of Lawfare in One Post

Following up on their analysis of FBI climate survey data last year, Scott Anderson, Quinta Jurecic and Benjamin Wittes analyzed the FBI’s 2019 climate survey data.

Anderson and Wittes also asked whether the FBI is punishing its employees for their political comments, and sought bureau data to address the question.

Jen Patja Howell shared the most recent episode of the Lawfare Podcast, in which Benjamin Wittes speaks with Sasha O’Connell, who served as the FBI's chief strategy officer, about long-term strategic planning at an organization like the bureau:

Following the Indian government’s decision to revoke Jammu and Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status, C. Christine Fair explained the historical and political context of the move.

Laya Maheshwari examined the mechanics through which the Indian government acted and the open questions around the government’s legal reasoning.

David Priess and Margaret Taylor addressed the recent confusion over impeachment proceedings. Hadley Baker shared a legal brief from the House Judiciary Committee in which the committee argued that its case to obtain grand jury materials is related to its efforts to obtain testimony from former White House counsel Don McGahn.Vishnu Kannan shared the Justice Department’s objection to treating the two cases as related.

Jen Patja Howell shared the latest episode of Rational Security, in which Scott Anderson Tamara Coffman Wittes, Quinta Jurecic and Benjamin Wittes discussed Hong Kong, Kashmir, the Russian missile test accident and the House’s “slouching towards impeachment”:

Pranay Vaddi argued that the New START’s application to Russia’s conventional weapons is more complicated than opponents of the treaty suggest.

Hady Amr offered lessons from the post-9/11 war on terror and explored their implications for combatting domestic terrorism today.

Hadley Baker shared a bill from Republican Sen. Martha McSally of Arizona to criminalize domestic terrorism.

Mikhaila Fogel shared the text of a related bill introduced by Rep. Adam Schiff.

As part of Lawfare’s ongoing coverage of tech-policy issues, Chris Jay Hoofnagle, Woodrow Hartzog and Daniel Solove analyzed the Federal Trade Commission’s ability to protect privacy following Facebook’s recent settlement.

Scott Moore argued that President Trump’s techno-nationalism is a mistake.

Betsy Cooper shared a job post for a policy incubator fellowship at the Aspen Tech Policy Hub.

Stephanie Leutert and Sarah Spalding updated their model of Central American migration to include data up to July 2019, as well as giving a Spanish translation of the methodology behind the model.

Mikhaila Fogel shared the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit’s ruling that the injunction against the administration’s new asylum rule is only enforceable within the Ninth Circuit.

Emma DiNapoli and Jacques Singer-Emery chronicled the latest developments of the military commission in United States v. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, et al. from July 22-26.

Douglas Ollivant assessed the use of the Magnitsky Act as an important new source of U.S. influence in Iraq.

Jen Patja Howell shared an episode of the Lawfare Podcast in which Benjamin Wittes spoke to Amanda Sloat about all things Brexit:

Brian Kim examined the South Korean Supreme Court decision at the heart of the current historically charged, economic-diplomatic conflict between South Korea and Japan.

Preston Lim shared the third installation in his Canadian national security column.

Christopher Fonzone reviewed John Gans, "White House Warriors: How the National Security Council Transformed the American Way of War" (Liveright, 2019).

Bobby Chesney and Steve Slick shared the winners of the fifth annual Bobby R. Inman Award from the University of Texas’ Intelligence Studies Project.

And Scott Anderson explained why the president can’t buy Greenland.

And that was the week that was.