The Week That Was

Scott R. Anderson sat down with Ned Foley, professor at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, and Genevieve Nadeau, counsel at Protect Democracy, to discuss Electoral Count Act reform proposals in the House and Senate, what impact they will have on the electoral process, and what work still remains:

Hyemin Han shared Special Master Judge Raymond Dearie’s Oct. 7 order on former President Donald Trump and the Justice Department's joint Log of Disputes for Filter Materials, which enumerated documents that are to be returned to Trump and that will be reviewed by Dearie and the Case Team. Han also shared an itemized list of filter materials, made partially public by a court filing error.

Han also shared U.S. Circuit Judge Adalberto Jordan’s Oct. 5 order granting the Justice Department’s motion to expedite its appeal of U.S. District Judge Eileen Cannon’s Sept. 5 order appointing a special master to review documents seized from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence on Aug. 8.   

Katherine Pompilio shared former President Donald Trump’s application asking the Supreme Court to vacate the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals’s Sept. 21 decision granting the Department of Justice access to classified materials recovered from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence on Aug. 8. 

Han shared former President Donald Trump’s filings opposing the Justice Department’s Sept. 30 motion to expedite the special master appeal for the seizure of Trump’s documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence in August.

Anna Bower detailed the events of the Oct. 3 opening arguments in the trial of Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and his co-defendants, Kelly Meggs, Kenneth Harrleson, Jessica Watkins, and Thomas Caldwell for seditious conspiracy.

Cyprien Fluzin explained the recent ruling by the European Court of Human Rights in H.F. and Others v. France, the case addressing France’s refusal to repatriate citizens who joined ISIS and remain in de facto detention camps in Syria run by the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces.

Fluzin also explained the repatriation controversy in Syria, relating to foreign nationals in de facto detention by Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces, in light of the European Court of Human Rights Sept. 14 ruling ordering France to reexamine certain repatriation requests and create a formal mechanism to review such requests in the future. 

Peter Marguiles analyzed the Fifth Circuit’s Oct. 5 ruling in Texas v. United States which held that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program conflicted with limits on executive authority in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). The Fifth Circuit ruling left intact a previous stay of injunction, allowing current DACA recipients to maintain their benefits under the program while its ultimate legality continues to be litigated. 

Eisha Jain argued that the logic built into immigration law, in stated service of immigration  control,  legitimizes unjustified domestic policing and surveillance, eroding the civil liberties of immigrants. 

Alex Engler discussed the Biden administration’s Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights, a detailed exposition on the civil rights harms of artificial intelligence published on Oct. 4, and how it figures into the administration’s broader approach to algorithmic regulation.

Paul Rosenzweig and Katie Stoughton discussed their research demonstrating the lack of transparency from large tech platforms in reporting what content they are moderating and why.  

Quinta Jurecic sat down with Mark Bergen, a reporter for Bloomberg News and Businessweek, to discuss his new book, “Like, Comment, Subscribe: Inside YouTube’s Chaotic Rise to World Domination.” They spoke about YouTube's impact on the modern attention economy, the promise and pitfalls of the internet, and the struggles of platforms to grapple with their own influence and responsibility: 

Jim Dempsey discussed doubts on the applicability of “performance-based” regulations relating to cybersecurity and argued for a policy approach that combines management-based controls and technology specific prescriptions.

Stewart Baker sat down with Jane Bambauer, Gus Hurwitz, and Mark MacCarthy to discuss the Supreme Court’s decision to review Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and its liability protections for large platforms, content moderation, some recent developments from the Federal Trade Commission, and more:  

David Priess sat down for a conversation with Martijn Rasser, senior fellow and director of the Technology and National Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, to discuss the nature of the semiconductor industry, the Foreign-Direct Product Rule, U.S.-led actions against Huawei, and more: 

Micah Musser suggested that China’s new regulations on artificial intelligence systems are more complex than just an attempt to micromanage algorithms, as many media outlets have argued. 

Michael Laha reviewed Norbet Röttgen’s new book “Never Again Helpless! A Manifesto in Times of War” which argued for a new approach in Germany’s foreign policy. 

Han shared the Department of Defense’s annual report detailing civilian casualties in connection with U.S. military operations in 2021. The report also provided updated numbers for the years 2018–2020.  

Raphael S. Cohen and Gian Gentile argued that Russia’s military mobilization and recent annexation of Ukrainian territories gives clarity to the United States and its allies’ role in the war as a means to achieve total victory rather than attempting to negotiate settlements with Russia to bring peace to the region.

Benjamin Wittes sat down with Julia Ioffe and Lt. Col. (ret.)Alexander Vindman to discuss Russia’s war in Ukraine including the recent explosions along the Nord Stream pipelines, the Russian annexation of seized Ukrainian territory, and more:

Wittes also sat down with Suzanne Maloney, vice president for Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution to discuss the current protests in Iran, the regime’s reaction to the protests, how the United States can constructively respond, and about where it is all going from here:

And Priess sat down for a chat with Darrell Blocker, former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operations officer and manager, about getting spy stories told on film, stumbling early in an intelligence career, enhancing CIA interactions with the media, and performing on stage in a jazz band:  

And that was the week that was.