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The National Security Law Podcast

Episode 38: How Did We Get Through This One Without Saying “Posse Comitatus”?

The National Security Law Podcast

Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladeck

Courses, Politics, News, Education, Government

4.8646 Ratings

🗓️ 27 September 2017

⏱️ 62 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Seriously, how did they manage not to say "posse comitatus" during this episode?  Sigh.  In this week's episode, Professors Vladeck and Chesney do talk at length about various legal issues raised by the devastation in Puerto Rico, including the possibility of an Insurrection Act invocation.  In addition, they renew attention to the as-yet-unnamed U.S. citizen who apparently remains in U.S. military custody as an enemy combatant in Syria or Iraq, urging the media to keep a focus on this important situation.  On a related note, they also explore the significance of the Trump administration's potential revisions to the Obama-era policy guidance regarding the use of lethal force outside of areas of "active hostilities."  From there, they pivot to a review of the special birthday party the Senate Judiciary Committee through to celebrate Steve's birthday yesterday, which took the form of a hearing on the constitutionality and desirability of a pair of bills that would help to further insulate the special counsel position (and, thus, Bob Mueller's investigation) from removal without adequate cause.  And then they close with an update on the Travel Ban litigation, noting that the critical issue at this juncture is whether SCOTUS will vacate the relevant circuit decisions or let them stand.  Well, they "close" with that in the sense that this is where a reasonable listener would tune out...but, for those who are gluttons for punishment, you can listen through to the end and be treated to musings on the new Star Trek series, the rapidly-unfolding NCAA basketball scandal, and the relevance (or not) of the Cavaliers signing Dwayne Wade. Caveat audientis (or something like that...)!

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello from Austin and welcome to episode 38 of the National Security Law podcast, brought to you by the Strauss Center at the University of Texas.

0:18.6

I'm Bobby Chesney. I'm Steve Vladlitt. Episode 38. Who's there, is Kurt

0:22.4

chilling 38? You know, I can't think of a famous one on 38, but I can think of lots of topics

0:28.1

for us to talk about today. For example, there is still a publicly unidentified American citizen

0:34.9

held as an enemy combatant somewhere in Iraq or Syria, at least

0:38.6

that's the report we had about what, 10 days ago, Steve?

0:41.0

I mean, I think the report was he turned himself in.

0:43.9

He surrendered to SDF forces two weeks ago yesterday.

0:47.6

So this is day 15.

0:49.0

All right.

0:49.3

So we'll talk more about that.

0:50.6

And then from there, what will be our second topic?

0:52.6

So I think we have to talk about Puerto Rico.

0:54.5

There's not a lot of, I think, legal stuff to say about Puerto Rico, but I think there's

0:57.6

just two quick notes I want to make.

0:58.9

One about the Jones Act, which was all over Twitter the last 24 hours.

1:02.9

The statute that's sinking Puerto Rico.

1:04.6

Seriously.

1:05.6

And then what about, I think, actually a more interesting, more relevant national security topic, which is the Insurrection Act, and exactly what powers the president has to actually use the military in circumstances like these.

1:16.0

This is the statute that was enacted after Star Trek insurrection?

1:19.6

Oh, gosh. That would have been bad. That statute would have, I think, said no more Star Trek movies

1:25.1

ever. So speaking to Star Trek, we'll talk more about that later.

...

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