149 episodes listed below
National security law, argued between running jokes.
The Strauss Center at the University of Texas presents this loose, teasing conversation in which Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladeck work through national security law. Military commission delays, TikTok, the rules on civilian harm in wartime and Trump's immunity case get careful legal treatment, alongside jokes about bets and the long gaps between episodes.
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The National Security Law Podcast is a two-voice legal conversation featuring Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladeck, presented by the Strauss Center at the University of Texas. It works where a news story turns into a legal question: which test applies, what a holding actually said, and who has the better argument. That is the substance. The delivery is looser, full of interruptions, running jokes and friendly digs. The military commissions keep coming back. The 9/11 case, the KSM trial and the al-Nashiri prosecution surface repeatedly, often with open doubts that announced trial dates will ever hold. In one exchange the pair talk through what a plea arrangement would ask of each side: the government setting aside capital sentences, some defendants eventually repatriated and guilty pleas in return. Then comes the obvious question of why a defendant would accept. Elsewhere they joke that the 9/11 defendants have become permanent sustaining members of the show. The presidential immunity case also gets sustained attention. They weigh Gorsuch's insistence at argument on writing a rule for the ages, and whether concern for sympathetic hypotheticals not actually before the court could push the justices toward something broad. They also lay out the holding itself in legal terms. On TikTok, the analysis runs from the power of China's Ministry of State Security over a Chinese-headquartered company to whether a First Amendment challenge would trigger intermediate scrutiny. The risk of algorithmic manipulation is called overhyped yet also real. The law of armed conflict comes up through distinction, proportionality and collateral damage, and through the harder question of what a commander knew or reasonably should have known. Election law appears too, with talk of whether Trump would stay on Colorado's Republican primary ballot and what would happen if he were removed late. The comedy mostly lives in the cold opens and sign-offs. A bet over whether they would reach 30 episodes in 2023, with a dinner riding on it, gets argued over again in the cold opens late that year. The long gaps between recordings become material for titles like 'Episode 245: 100 Days Later…' and 'Episode 246: Around the Drain in 80 Days.' They promise to be back before the next season of House of the Dragon, and a snoring pug makes the credits at least once. Each closing ends the same way: stay safe out there, then adios. For the commissions thread, 'Episode 241: Let’s Barbie!' has the plea-deal back-and-forth. For the immunity case at the argument stage, 'Episode 246: Around the Drain in 80 Days' is the place to go.
Made for: Suits a listener who wants national security cases explained at the level of holdings, tests and scrutiny standards, and who enjoys hearing that analysis between inside jokes and friendly teasing.
What sets it apart: It sets serious legal work on military commissions, presidential immunity and the law of armed conflict inside a loose, teasing two-person rapport. That rapport comes with running bets and frank doubts about promised trial dates.
Unpacking the Legal Issues Behind the Headlines
The declassification wand is imaginary; Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladek make you reckon with the statute.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
The 9/11 commissions and presidential immunity share a table, with doctrine tested against years of delay.
Episode 247 puts the National Security Law Podcast's familiar military commissions beat alongside the Supreme Court's presidential-immunity decision.
Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladeck use the January 6 indictment to show how judicial hypotheticals can widen a case beyond the facts before the court.
Episode 246 returns after an 80-day gap and moves quickly into the legal argument over how a former president's conduct should be treated in the January 6 indictment.
After 100 days away, Chesney and Vladeck return to TikTok, national security, and the First Amendment.
After 100 days away, The National Security Law Podcast returns with Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladeck catching up on the long break, Vladeck's move back to DC, and the legal fight around TikTok.
A sharp, accessible look at how Colorado's Trump ballot case could force the Supreme Court onto the election clock.
Episode 244 uses a holiday recording to dig into the Colorado Supreme Court's Section 3 case involving Donald Trump and the pressure it creates for the U.S. Supreme Court.
A careful guide to distinction, proportionality, and why civilian harm cannot be judged from aftermath alone.
Episode 243 looks at civilian deaths from IDF attacks involving Hamas targets through the law of distinction, proportionality, and the information commanders have when they choose to strike.
Strategy beneath the threshold of war.
Plain-language civics with historical teeth.
Prime Minister's Questions, straight from the Commons chamber.
Australian policy problems, argued from the evidence to the fix.
Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladeck analyze the November 5, 2020 election count, focusing on Trump campaign lawsuits over observer access in Philadelphia and Judge Paul Diamond’s “non-zero number” exchange.
Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladek use Episode 164 of The National Security Law Podcast to discuss pandemic-era executive power, immigration, civil-service protections, and military commissions.
Steve Vladek and Bobby analyze Inspector General Horowitz's March 30, 2020 report on Woods procedures used in Title I FISA applications.
Hosts Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladek discuss national security law and current events after a seven-week hiatus.
Hosts discuss national security law topics and take questions from a live audience of Texas Law alumni.
Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladeck analyze ODNI’s 2020 transparency report, including six FBI communications searches in 2018 and one in 2019 that allegedly bypassed a statutory warrant requirement.
Episode 160 of The National Security Law Podcast examines Trump’s limited authority over state shelter-in-place orders, federal employees, emergency funding, and the Defense Production Act during the March 2020 COVID-19 emergency.
Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladeck examine the 2020 presidential transition, including Pentagon leadership changes involving Chris Miller, Anthony Tata, Ezra Cohen-Watnick, and Kash Patel.
Episode 247 of The National Security Law Podcast centers on the 9-11 plea deal collapse and the Supreme Court's Trump immunity decision.
Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladeck return after an 80-day gap with move stories, including Chesney’s 7:10 a.m.
["The National Security Law Podcast returns after 100 days with Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladeck, opening on Vladeck\u2019s move from Austin to Georgetown Law and the promise to keep the show alive.", "The hosts use the catch-up episode to move through Ex Parte McCardell, Andrew Johnson\u2019s impeachment trial, Ken Burns, and Eric Foner before turning to current conflicts.", "On Gaza, they describe the United Nations Security Council\u2019s ceasefire resolution, the U.S.
Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladeck open episode 244 with their 2023 recording bet, then pivot to Trump, Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, and the Colorado Supreme Court's 4-3 ruling.
Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladeck use episode 243 of The National Security Law Podcast to work through the October 7 Hamas attacks, Article 51 self-defense, and the law of armed conflict as applied to Israel and Gaza.
The National Security Law Podcast’s “Episode 241: Let’s Barbie!” moves from the first day of law school at the University of Texas to military-commission litigation and Donald Trump’s Georgia indictment.
Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladek analyze the four federal charges in the August 2023 indictment of Donald Trump over efforts to subvert the 2020 election result.
Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladek examine a Fifth Circuit decision by Judge Andy Oldham holding that President Biden lacked constitutional authority to impose a COVID-19 vaccination mandate on unfederalized National Guard troops.
Bobby Chesney and Steve Fladek analyze the Southern District of Florida indictment United States v.
Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladeck analyze the D.C.
Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladek discuss Steve Donziger's Supreme Court denial-of-certiorari litigation over privately appointed criminal contempt prosecutors.
Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladek examine the Senate's 68-49 cloture vote to repeal the 1991 and 2002 Iraq AUMFs and debate what those statutes could mean for operations involving Iran.
Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladek analyze Gonzalez v.
Episode 233 of The National Security Law Podcast uses ChatGPT-generated introductions and student guest hosts Sam Levy and Alex Rigby to frame a discussion of national-security law.
Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladek analyze the Chinese surveillance balloon, including its passage from Alaska through Canada and its shootdown by an F-22 near the Atlantic coast.
Bobby Chesney and Steve Locke examine four national-security-law developments, beginning with federal seditious-conspiracy convictions tied to the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
The National Security Law Podcast's Episode 230 examines the Biden classified documents controversy, contrasting accidental retention and immediate compliance with Trump's alleged refusal to return records and obstruction.
Episode 229 of The National Security Law Podcast introduces Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladeck’s proposed 2023 format, combining current legal developments with planned deep dives on topics such as IEEPA and the shadow docket.
Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladek examine the Eleventh Circuit’s unanimous rejection of Donald Trump’s executive-privilege arguments over Mar-a-Lago documents, including the court’s three-choice framing of the dispute.
Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladeck examine whether Elon Musk’s Twitter can survive advertiser departures, impersonation failures, and a possible bankruptcy, with Mastodon discussed as an imperfect alternative.
Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladeck examine litigation over Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago documents, including the Eleventh Circuit's ruling that the records belong to the government rather than the former president.
The National Security Law Podcast's Episode 225 examines the August 2022 Mar-a-Lago investigation, including the unsealed affidavit's May 6, 2021 timeline and focus on 18 U.S.C.
The National Security Law Podcast's Episode 224 examines the unsealed Mar-a-Lago search-warrant materials and the statutes 18 U.S.C.
The National Security Law Podcast examines the FBI’s August 8, 2022 search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, including possible violations involving classified information and government records.
The National Security Law Podcast's Episode 221 examines the legal consequences of Dobbs, Bruen, Carson, and Kennedy alongside post-9/11 detention and capture operations.
The National Security Law Podcast’s Bobby Chesney and Steve Loddick examine Proud Boys seditious-conspiracy charges, Peter Navarro’s contempt-of-Congress case, and possible January 6 investigations involving the Trump administration.
Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladek open by discussing Chesney's appointment as the University of Texas School of Law's 16th dean and what it means for the National Security Law Podcast.
Bobby Chesney and Steve Loddick of The National Security Law Podcast examine whether U.S.
Matt Olson, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, discusses his career from the FBI under Bob Mueller to leading the Justice Department's National Security Division.
Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladeck analyze Ukraine-related international-law questions, including Ukraine's acceptance of International Criminal Court jurisdiction and U.S.
The National Security Law Podcast’s Episode 215 examines Vladimir Putin’s recognition of two eastern Ukrainian regions and the hosts’ view that the move plainly violated Ukraine’s territorial integrity under Article 2.4 of the U.N.
Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladek analyze the Biden Justice Department’s changed position on torture-derived statements in Nashiri, including whether the evidence could be used in pretrial proceedings or for impeachment.
Bobby Chesney and Steve Loddick examine the January 19, 2022 Russia-Ukraine crisis through Article 2(4), collective self-defense, covert action, cyber operations, and the War Powers Resolution.
The National Security Law Podcast's December 17, 2021 holiday episode examines Steve Bannon's contempt case, Mark Meadows's proposed testimonial-immunity defense, and Donald Trump's effort to block January 6th committee documents.
Bobby Chesney and Steve Lottick review Guantanamo developments involving Asadullah Haroon Ghul and Majid Khan, including Ghul's habeas victory and a military commission panel's clemency letter.
Episode 210 of The National Security Law Podcast features Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladeck discussing Vladeck's Senate Judiciary Committee testimony on the Supreme Court's shadow docket and Justice Alito's subsequent criticism.
The National Security Law Podcast’s Episode 209 examines the twentieth anniversary of 9/11 through detention, military commissions, lethal force, surveillance, interrogation, and immigration.
Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladeck examine the Taliban’s August 2021 return to power, beginning with the humanitarian consequences for Afghans after the Doha agreement and U.S.
Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladeck examine possible reform of the 2001 AUMF, including a proposed one-shot sunset and a mechanism for adding associated groups.
Episode 206 of The National Security Law Podcast examines Mark Martins's departure from the Guantanamo military commissions after more than a decade, including reporting by Charlie Savage and Carol Rosenberg about a dispute involving statements from Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.
Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladeck analyze U.S.
Bobby Chesney and Steve Ladek examine Van Buren's narrow interpretation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the unresolved question of whether a policy violation requires bypassing a technical barrier.
Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladecki interview Eric Goldstein, CISA’s Executive Assistant Director for Cybersecurity, about his path from firefighting and emergency management to federal cyber policy.
Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladeck return to Steve's office for Episode 202 of The National Security Law Podcast and focus on Guantánamo military commissions, detainee transfers, and the DOJ National Security Division.
Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladeck reconstruct a lost recording while examining the D.C.
The National Security Law Podcast's 200th episode, recorded live in Austin on April 19, 2021, examines Afghanistan withdrawal, Guantanamo, Russia's SolarWinds sanctions, Microsoft Exchange, and the Biden administration's first 100 days.
Bobby Chesney and Steve Ladek examine the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act bills H.R.
Bobby Chesney and Steve Loddick discuss PCLOB’s public treatment of Executive Order 12333, including NSA’s XKeyscore and the contrast with earlier Section 702 and Section 215 reports.
Bobby Chesney and Steve Vladek examine repeal of the 1991 and 2002 Iraq AUMFs, arguing that dormant authorizations can invite future executive interpretations while leaving the broader 2001 AUMF untouched.