Notices by Lawfare (lawfare@mastodon.social)

In May, India and Pakistan conducted the most intense direct fighting between any two nuclear-armed states in history.

Andrew Facini explores how "tactical nukes" increase the likelihood for limited conventional skirmishes to result in nuclear signaling in just a few hours. https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/navigating-crises-with-a-lower-bar-to-nuclear-war

Earlier this month, Anna Bower started to receive Signal messages from the U.S. attorney who is leading the prosecution of Letitia James.

Throughout the exchange, Lindsay Halligan complained about Bower’s tweets and reporting on the indictment–but never once asked to be off the record. https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/anna--lindsey-halligan-here

ICYMI: Watch Benjamin Wittes and Anna Bower discuss her article about how interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan reached out to her on Signal—and the conversation that followed. https://youtube.com/live/SZZyccEbtpU?feature=share

On Lawfare's litigation tracker you can find the dockets for 200 cases challenging actions from the Trump administration, including Illinois's suit challenging the deployment of the National Guard in Chicago, a U.S. citizen suing ICE over an alleged wrongful arrest, and many more. https://www.lawfaremedia.org/trumptracker

"Do the majority of Americans actually want to live in a constitutional republic?

Can a constitutional republic function in the absence of shame?"

In The Situation, Benjamin Wittes is just asking questions. https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-situation--just-asking-questions

Today's Lawfare Daily is a Scaling Laws episode where Kevin Frazier spoke to Gus Hurwitz and Neil Chilson about how academics can overcome the silos and incentives that plague the Ivory Tower and positively contribute to the highly complex work associated with AI governance. https://youtu.be/Dq8ALnJ59G0

"Contending with these new threats requires a different approach to personal digital devices, cloud services, social media, and data in general."

Bruce Schneier explores the personal cybersecurity measures needed to combat the threats that arise from techno-authoritarianism. https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/digital-threat-modeling-under-authoritarianism

Yesterday in The Situation, Benjamin Wittes broke down the Fifth Circuit's rejection of Trump's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act—which he sees as an important indicator that not all conservative judges feel the need to defer to the lies.

https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-situation--deferring-to-lies

On Aug. 21, the New Jersey District Court ruled that Alina Habba was unlawfully performing the duties of the office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, and that all legal action Habba had taken since July 1 “may be declared void.” Read the ruling, from Mary Ford. https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/federal-judge-rules-habba-lacks-legal-authority-as-u.s.-attorney

U.S.-trained contractors fired bullets into food-aid queues while working for the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Safia Southey delves into whether U.S. civil and criminal law reaches Rafah—and how it could be enforced. https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/u.s.-bullets--u.s.-law--the-legal-net-around-gaza-s-private-guards

On Aug. 12, the State Department released its country reports on Human Rights Practices for 2024. This year’s reports were structured differently from previous HRRs–the Trump admin reportedly added new evaluation categories including “Life” and “Liberty” and “Security of Person,” and removed others—such as gender-based and violence, violence against LGBTQ+ individuals. Read the reports, from Mary Ford. https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/state-dept.-releases-2024-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices

The Syrian government is consolidating power and excluding important groups. It’s time for the United States and Europe to use their leverage, writes Haddon Barth.
https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-west-is-helping-syria-build-a-government-no-minority-wants-to-join

The perpetrator of an assasination of a Minnesota lawmaker in June likely used data brokers to find personal information of his victims. Sam Adler, Thomas Kadri, and Chinmayi Sharma look at how policymakers should address this brokered violence. https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/brokered-violence--safety-for-sale-in-the-free-marketplace-of-data

On today’s Lawfare Daily, Teun Jansenn joins Benjamin Wittes to talk about the prospects of Europe's stepping up for Ukraine as the United States backs away, and more.

https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/lawfare-daily--teun-janssen-on-ukraine-and-a-big-europe

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in Feb. 2022, Ukrainian courts have sentenced more than 100 Russian military officials in absentia for war crimes. Maya Nicholson explains how these in absentia trials could be in tension with international law. https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/ukraine-s-precarious-pursuit-of-justice-through-in-absentia-trials

David Mansfield argues that satellite imagery is a critical tool for understanding the origins of conflict and identifying the best policy solutions, using the May 2023 Iran-Afghanistan conflict as a case study. https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/understanding-conflict-through-satellite-imagery

Today Lawfare is launching a new tracker, Alien Enemies Act Proclamation: The State of Play

The table, created by Roger Parloff, is following challenges to deportations occurring under the Alien Enemies Act invocation.

Find it here: www.lawfaremedia.org/alienenemiestable

Kori Schake argues that pushing military servicemembers to willfully disobey lawful orders they determine are democracy corroding and immoral invites insubordination and ineffectualness. https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/avoiding-praetorianism-in-civil-military-relations

Earlier this, two federal courts found that President Trump's use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs was unlawful.

Watch Scott Anderson and Peter Harrell discuss the rulings, what seems likely to happen on appeal, and more. https://youtu.be/R9QzETI9PvM

On today's Lawfare Daily, Kevin Frazier sat down with Josh Batson to break down two research papers that uncovered some important insights about how advanced generative AI models work and discuss the broader significance of interpretability and explainability research. https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/lawfare-daily--josh-batson-on-understanding-how-and-why-ai-works