Lawfare

On Jan. 7, the White House announced the United States’s departure from 66 multilateral organizations and treaties. Isabel Linzer and Aliya Bhatia explore how the withdrawal will hamper the United States’s ability to advance human rights and civil liberties on and offline.

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The U.S. Heel Turn on International Cooperation

The U.S.’s withdrawal from international multistakeholder fora undermines human rights, global governance, and U.S. strategic interests.

On Jan. 12, Sen. Mark Kelly filed a civil suit against the Department of Defense and Secretary Pete Hegseth over the military disciplinary proceedings initiated against him which argues that the government retaliated against Kelly for First Amendment-protected speech. Read the suit, from Peter Beck.

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Sen. Kelly Sues Department of Defense Over Disciplinary Actions

The suit alleges the Defense Department retaliated against Kelly for protected speech and interfered with his Article I duties.

On the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol revisit Lawfare’s January 6 Project. You can find our coverage of the attack which explores the many legal and policy issues that arose, as well as a repository of significant documents, congressional hearings, and other materials. https://www.lawfaremedia.org/projects-series/the-jan.-6-project

A lot happened in 2025–from the deployment of National Guard in cities across the country to airstrikes in the Caribbean to DOGE's incursion into executive agencies to the weaponization of the Justice Department—and we covered it all. Lawfare contributors reflect back on the year that was:

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The Year That Was (2025)

The issues—and Lawfare coverage—that kept our editors up at night in 2025.

"[T]o put the issue of border security as the top objective in one’s national security strategy is a kind of a nativist madness that is more about cultural—and let’s be honest, racial—anxiety about immigration than it is about any tangible security threat," writes Benjamin Wittes.

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The Situation: Why Did the White House Write This National Security Strategy?

A very strange document.

This year's UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) highlighted a harsh reality: the optimistic era of climate diplomacy has given way to a more fragmented and competitive world, in which climate change is taking a back seat to other concerns, write Erin Sikorsky and Siena Cicarelli.

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Embracing Climate Realities: The Climate Security Implications of COP30

The optimistic era of climate diplomacy, epitomized by the 2015 Paris Agreement, has given way to a more fragmented world in which climate change h...

Lawfare's Trump Administration Litigation Tracker is currently following 253 active cases challenging Trump administration actions, 19 suits by the administration challenging state or local laws, and 6 criminal prosecution. Check it out at lawfaremedia.org/trumptracker

Nearly four and a half years after the SolarWinds breach, the core policy change by the Biden administration to prevent a future breach from happening has not been implemented. Nick Leiserson discusses what may be causing this failure to change acquisition regulations.

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F5, SolarWinds, and the Lethargy of the FAR Council

Stopping procurement regulation vaporware is key for the U.S. government to see meaningful gains from security-by-demand.

Today at 4 pm ET, watch Natalie Orpett, Roger Parloff and James Pearce a judge dismissing the indictments against James Comey and Letitia James, ruling that Lindsey Halligan was not properly appointed to served as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. https://youtube.com/live/XxySL8HTZMQ?feature=share

Does the president have the constitutional authority to deploy active-duty forces domestically, free from the constraints of the Posse Comitatus Act? If and when the Supreme Court considers this question, the answer “should be an emphatic ‘no,’” writes Christopher Mirasola.

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Confronting the Protective Power

The president’s theory of constitutional authority to deploy active-duty troops is more dangerous than the government’s briefing suggests.