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Full-Text Articles in Law

10th Annual Open Government Summit: The Access To Public Records Act & The Open Meetings Act, 2008, Department Of Attorney General, State Of Rhode Island Aug 2008

10th Annual Open Government Summit: The Access To Public Records Act & The Open Meetings Act, 2008, Department Of Attorney General, State Of Rhode Island

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.


True Believers At Law: National Security Agendas, The Regulation Of Lawyers, And The Separation Of Powers, Peter Margulies Jan 2008

True Believers At Law: National Security Agendas, The Regulation Of Lawyers, And The Separation Of Powers, Peter Margulies

Law Faculty Scholarship

Ideological agendas distort the deliberation required for sound legal advice about national security. Elite government lawyers after September 11 advanced a theory at the expense of context, labeling legal constraints as "lawfare" against American interests. The lawfare critics failed to recognize that legal constraints can empower decision makers by reinforcing reputational and other long-term values. They also failed their history test, ignoring the lessons of presidents from Jefferson to Kennedy who rejected a rigid adherence to ideology in the national security realm. By discounting context, the construction of the lawfare paradigm produced dire results, including the torture memos drafted by …