The Week That Was: All of Lawfare in One Post

Jen Patja Howell shared an episode of the Lawfare Podcast featuring Molly Reynolds and Margaret Taylor discussing Congress’s functioning during the combined crises of the coronavirus and a polarized presidential election:

Grant Tudor presented options to modernize Congress’s subpoena compliance tools in order to avoid another legal battle like the one over the congressional subpoena issued against former White House counsel Don McGahn.

Chas Kissick analyzed North Carolina’s response to the coronavirus and derived lessons out of privacy issues that arose from the state’s policies.

Andrew Weissman discussed Russia’s 2016 election interference and suggested actions that Congress and the Justice Department should take to protect American democracy from foreign influence campaigns.

Lane Baker, Gabriella Garcia, Axel Hufford, Garrett Jensen and Alexandra Popke wrote about state-to-state differences in ballot drop-off options as part of Stanford’s Healthy Elections Project.

Lane Baker, Axel Hufford, Ashley Richards and Neil Wary discussed the specifics of 16 states that require the provision of “secrecy sleeves” for mailed ballots and found that seven states—Kentucky, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia—will reject ballots that are not enclosed in a secrecy sleeve.

Jen Patja Howell released an episode of the Lawfare Podcast entitled, “David Priess Accepts the Results of the Presidential Election.” Priess joined Benjamin Wittes on the podcast to discuss his recent Lawfare article on the history of peaceful transitions of power in the United States:

Alvaro Marañon shared an international statement released by the Justice Department that reiterates the challenges end-to-end encryption poses to public safety.

Marañon also posted the White House’s October 2020 National Strategy for Critical and Emerging Technologies.

Anna Salvatore shared Justice Clarence Thomas’s statement on the Supreme Court’s decision not to review the scope of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

Stewart A. Baker released two episodes of The Cyberlaw Podcast. One featured an interview with David Ignatius about the technology in his latest spy novel, “The Paladin”:

The other episode included Baker’s discussion with a group of experts about the latest news in cybersecurity, content moderation and international law:

Christopher Docksey argued that given the latest ruling in Schrems II, the EU and the U.S. must find a durable arrangement for data transfers; if they don’t, legal battles will perpetually impede cross-border data transfers.

Bobby Chesney explained how and why U.S. Cyber Command conducted a disruption operation against Trickbot, a malware package which enables a massive botnet.

Jen Patja Howell shared an episode of Rational Security, which included discussion of the end of a Justice Department investigation of Obama-era officials “unmasking” individuals from intelligence report, the Russian botnet story, and other things:

Jen Patja Howell also shared an episode of the Lawfare Podcast featuring an interview with Charles Kupchan on his recently published book, “Isolationism: A History of America’s Efforts to Shield Itself from the World”:

Sam Cohen analyzed the latest developments in the South China Sea following the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue between the United States, Australia, India and Japan.

Shayan Karbassi explained the history, legal requirements and current implications of civil nuclear cooperation agreements under Section 123 of the Atomic Energy Act.

Scott Moore argued that China’s new climate commitments have important implications for U.S. national security.

Lester Munson shared an episode of the Fault Lines podcast featuring an interview with Chris Brose, a former staff director of the Senate Armed Services Committee, about Brose’s recent book: “The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare”:

Emma Svoboda explained how the political crisis in Kyrgyzstan erupted.

Jen Patja Howell shared this week’s edition of Lawfare’s "Arbiters of Truth" series on disinformation, which features an interview with Maria Ressa, a Filipino-American journalist, on the weaponization of social media in the Philippines:

Howell also shared an episode of the Lawfare Podcast featuring an interview with the former ambassador to Iraq, Doug Silliman, on the threat to close the Baghdad embassy, the legacy of the Soleimani strike and the future of the U.S.-Iraq relationship:

And that was the week that was.