Tomorrow at 4pm ET, Benjamin Wittes will sit down with Anna Bower, Quinta Jurecic, Roger Parloff, James Pearce, and Bob Bauer to discuss the legal challenges to President Trump’s executive actions, including the Supreme Court’s rulings in the Alien Enemies Act and the firing of probationary employees cases.
Default
Lawfare Live: Trials of the Trump Administration, April 11
Join the Lawfare team at 4 pm ET for a discussion of the litigation targeting actions from President Trump.
 image
"[A]t the end of the day, you can’t kidnap people off the streets and ship them to El Salvador and then wax indignant about the overweening federal judges who tell you to bring them back—at least not credibly," writes Benjamin Wittes in the Situation.
Default
The Situation: Missing
Can the government win a case by losing the plaintiff?
On Lawfare Daily, Kevin Frazier and Renee DiResta spoke to Derek Thompson about his new book, "Abundance," the theory of Abundance, and its feasibility in an age of political discord and institutional distrust.
“If the executive branch is determined to provoke a constitutional crisis, then confrontation is inevitable. It is better that the crisis arises from the Court doing its job than from the Court being cowed into submission,” writes Suzanne Spaulding.
Default
Judicial Independence May Require Confrontation
SCOTUS cannot avoid a constitutional crisis by avoiding confrontation with the administration.
Newly-independent Ukraine has inherited thousands of nuclear weapons from the former Soviet Union. So the United States, Russia and Ukraine craft a high-stakes deal to disarm Ukraine in exchange for national security protection. But has Washington held up their end of the bargain? Or has Ukraine been betrayed? Episode 2 of Escalation is out now, wherever you get your podcasts.
Default
Escalation: No Guarantees
Listen to the second episode of Escalation, a narrative podcast on U.S.-Ukraine relations.
"The apparent statements from unnamed officials to the effect that by providing first names and last initials only, even over unclassified systems, no damage has been done, reflects either ignorance or indifference. Neither enhance the security of our nation," writes Jonathan M. Fredman.
Default
The ‘Mosaic’ Method and the Value of CIA Names to U.S. Adversaries
It’s a fundamental principle inculcated into CIA officers from day one: individual pieces of information can be combined to provide a picture tha...
Last night, 2 federal employee unions sued the Trump administration over its attempts to dismantle USAID and requested that the court issue a temporary restraining order to reverse actions dismantling USAID and halt further attempts to do so. Read the suit, from Caroline Cornett.
Default
Federal Employee Unions Sue Trump Administration for Dismantling USAID
Two federal employee unions seek to reverse actions dismantling USAID and halt further attempts to do so.  
"An FBI that was putting its collective foot down and refusing to be politicized, refusing to participate in a political witch hunt within its own ranks, and refusing to become political agents of the regime in power would, so far anyway, look almost exactly like what we are seeing," writes Benjamin Wittes.
Default
The Situation: What’s Going on at the FBI?
Don’t look now, but the FBI is resisting the political witch-hunt loosed upon it.
On Jan. 27, President Donald Trump fired all of the Democratic members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. Gregory Nojeim and Silvia Lorenzo Perez write that this removal threatens the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and puts civil liberties at risk.
Default
Trump’s Sacking of PCLOB Members Threatens Data Privacy
The firing of Democratic members of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board is a danger to civil liberties and trans-Atlantic data flows.
On Tuesday, over 2 million federal employees received an email with the subject line "Fork in the Road," introducing a deferred resignation program. Nick Bednar explains that not only could this violate the law, it may backfire & increase the incentives for employees to stay.
Default
Breaking Down OPM’s ‘Fork in the Road’ Email to Federal Workers
Though the subject line borrows a phrase from Musk’s Twitter email, the federal government is not a private company, and its HR policies are arca...