Courses

    This seminar will address current topics in national security and civil liberties. The Supreme Court has said that a state of war does not give the President a blank check when it comes to individual liberties. By contrast, Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Attorney General, Francis Biddle, said that “The Constitution has not greatly bothered any wartime President.” This course will examine the trade-offs presented in war and other states of emergency. We will examine such issues as preventive detention, surveillance standards, enemy combatants, military tribunals, the role of international tribunals, the targeting of foreign nationals, and regulation of speech and association.