Episode 47: Donuts and Depth Charges

The National Security Law Podcast

Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladeck

Courses, Politics, News, Education, Government

4.8 • 646 Ratings

🗓️ 28 November 2017

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

And...they're back! Fresh off of Thanksgiving, Professors Chesney and Vladeck are (all too) fired up to discuss the latest national security law news (not to mention a bunch of stuff that just isn't relevant to this (or any decent) podcast). This week some familiar storylines resume, and a few new ones appear: First up: The slowly-unfolding saga of the still-unidentified U.S. citizen held in military detention in Iraq. At long last, the district court will hold an actual hearing in ACLU v. Mattis, this Thursday, as a first step towards determining whether the ACLU even has standing to seek habeas review on John Doe's behalf. Next: Off to the Supreme Court we go! As an initial matter, the Court has denied cert. in Jaber v. United States, letting stand a D.C. Circuit opinion finding that the political question doctrine bars adjudication of a Torture Victims Protection Act claim by relatives of Yemeni victims of an alleged American airstrike. Then we have a preview of Carpenter (which will be argued on Wednesday), which raises the possibility that the Court will take a bite out of the third-party doctrine at least for cell-site location databases--and, in doing so, set off waves of litigation seeking similar constraints on that doctrine in other digital contexts. Your hosts note that a decision on these lines might well set the stage for litigation testing the notion of a foreign-intelligence exception to the warrant requirement, especially in connection with government access to telephone dialing records under the USA Freedom Act. And the Supreme Court tour then winds up with quick notes on the latest twists in the Travel Ban litigation. Next up: Back to GTMO, for an update and assessment of a slew of weedy, intertwined issues involving the authority of a military commission judge to compel civilian witnesses to testify, to have the last word on whether defense attorneys can withdrawal, to enforce its views with contempt sanctions, and so much more. All that, plus the question of how the heck to get these issues resolved and the Nashiri case moving forward again. Last (substantively): A quick review of the CFPB leadership clash, seen through the lens of how similar questions might play out in a weightier context--i.e., if the current Attorney General should decide to make a career move. Last (ridiculously): I know what you are thinking: You are dying to know what your hosts think are the all-time great submarine-themed movies, and the worst of that lot too. Stay tuned if the phrase "Con! Sonar! Crazy Ivan!!!!" warms your heart!

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello from Austin and welcome to episode 47 of the National Security Law podcast, brought to you by the Strauss Center at the University of Texas.
0:18.4	I'm Bobby Chesney.
0:19.6	I'm Steve Blodick.
0:20.6	We tried coming up with like a good
0:22.2	47. Like a famous athlete in War 47. It's not, it doesn't jump out at me as one. Tom Glavin,
0:30.5	as a Mets fan, I have double-edged heartburn about Tom Glavin, right? Both from when he wasn't
0:36.0	a MET and from what he was. Yeah, you know, good stuff. Anyway, so here we are. We're back. We're, I guess, better than ever. We're certainly older than ever. I've certainly gained some weight for Thanksgiving. Did you know, Steve, that in my family, my family and my wife's family live on the same street in San Antonio, but big families that we don't come together for one meal. So about, about noon, we have the Chesney family meal.
1:12.1	Oh, no. Then we go down the street. Yeah, and then about three hours later, we just do it again.
1:16.0	And, of course, I don't want to insult anybody who's been cooking. So you got to eat at all.
1:20.0	I fully partake. That's well played. So my family and Karen's family are not quite as geographically close. So we got to do the more sort of
1:27.8	primary meal on leftovers version. Oh, that, you know, I like that actually a little bit more.
1:32.6	It depends on the leftovers. I suppose it's possible that some listeners didn't tune in to hear
1:36.9	this. What do you think they want to hear about? You know, I mean, hey, these days, I can't tell what
1:42.5	people actually are interested in. It's the stuff that I find
1:44.3	deeply interesting. It's getting zero media coverage. I had an exchange with a editorial page,
1:50.4	I will not name of what publication, editor the other day, who was pitching me an idea,
1:55.4	and I pitched back something about the mess that is the Guantanamo Military Commissions,
1:59.8	to which the response was, what are you talking about?
2:02.7	Well, I was sure you were going to say the American citizen John Doe detainee.
2:06.3	Well, there's also that, but I think everyone's waiting for that hearing, which is scheduled
2:09.4	for this Thursday morning, November 30th, before Judge Chuck in in D.C.
2:12.5	But, Bobby, here we are.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladeck, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladeck and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.