According to the Jerusalem Post, five purchasers of Jimmy Carter's new book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid have filed a $5 million lawsuit in federal court in New York against Carter and Simon & Schuster, the book's publisher. The lawsuit alleges that the book violates New York consumer-protection laws by claiming to be a work of non-fiction (my emphasis): The five...
Pennumbra, the on-line companion to the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, is hosting the debate. John's opening statement and my reply -- which is something of a misnomer, because the reply doesn't directly address John's arguments -- are currently available. Both focus on Judge Bates' opinion dismissing the ACLU/CCR lawsuit; I argue that, contrary to the Judge's claim, his opinion...
It's been a while since I checked in on the WikiLeaks kerfuffle, so now that the HILJ symposium is over -- and I thought it was great -- I wanted to flag this recent article in the Wall Street Journal, which reports that the government has found no evidence that WikiLeaks or Julian Assange solicited or conspired with Bradley Manning...
I realize that Fox has long since given up any pretense of engaging in journalism, but I'm still shocked that it continues to let someone who is so clearly mentally disturbed poison political discourse (and put lives in danger) in the U.S. Here's his latest gem: BECK: I believe that I can make a case in the end that there are...
As Bobby Chesney noted at Lawfare a few days ago, the Court of Military Commission Review (CMCR) has issued the following order in al-Bahlul: Upon consideration of the record of trial and pleadings of the parties and amicus curiae, the following issues are specified and oral argument is ordered: I. Assuming that Charges I, II, and III allege underlying ...
The State Department this week released the 2009 volume of its Digest on U.S. Practice in International Law. Kudos to Elizabeth Wilcox for continuing the long tradition of making these sorts of materials publicly available; as I've noted previously, I find the whole Digest project--from Moore's seminal series to the current annual volumes--to be an invaluable resource in doing international law...
I've been updating my article advocating for an e-SOS (the first draft is available here). When I originally wrote it, Stuxnet had been identified as one of the first forms of malware to target SCADA systems explicitly (a SCADA--or “supervisory control and data acquisition”--system is one specifically designed to operate and control infrastructure, such as electrical and nuclear power systems, telecommunications, and oil...
The New York Times has the story today: Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates is expected to soon lift an order blocking the initiation of new cases against detainees, which he imposed on the day of President Obama’s inauguration. That would clear the way for tribunal officials, for the first time under the Obama administration, to initiate new charges ...
Today at Lawfare: If DOJ tries to prosecute Assange, we will see more and more scrutiny of double standards in the treatment of traditional media leak solicitors (NYT etc.) v. Assange, and of double standards in the treatment of high-level U.S. government leakers v. Assange. Scrutiny of the first double standard will weaken press freedoms as the...
It is with great concern that I hear about this because it puts Julian and his defence in a bad position. I do not like the idea that Julian may be forced into a trial in the media. And I feel especially concerned that he will be presented with the evidence in his own language for the first...
Samuel Witten is counsel at the law firm Arnold & Porter LLP. He worked at the State Department for 22 years, including six years as Deputy Legal Adviser (2001-2007) and three years as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration (2007-2010). The world’s attention has been riveted on the potential foreign policy implications of the recent...
Ben describes as "puzzling" my claim that his recent post on WikiLeaks reflects American exceptionalism. I find his puzzlement equally puzzling. Recall the quote on which I focused: This, in turn, leads ineluctibly to Tom’s reciprocity point: If Congress can make such a demand on Assange, the U.S. would be in a bad position to object if the Congress of People’s Deputies...
