Introducing ... What We're Reading

Hello Lawfare Patreon supporters,

Thank you for your support! This week, we are experimenting with a newsletter called “What We’re Reading.” This newsletter will take you through some content that each member of the Lawfare team is reading, watching and listening to. While most of the articles, books and podcasts linked below will be relevant to Lawfare readers, some of the content below will be simply … what we’re reading! This newsletter will also feature a “From the Lawfare Vault” section that will include previous Lawfare articles relevant to this week’s events. We hope you enjoy this latest feature. Let us know what you think and we might continue this experiment.

Here is what we’re reading:

As part of his work on The Bulwark's “A French Village Podcast,” Lawfare Editor in Chief Benjamin Wittes has been reading historian Julian Jackson's history of the Nazi occupation of France, “The Dark Years, 1940-1944.” He also strongly recommends Jonathan Shaub's Lawfare article, "Why the McGahn Agreement Is a Devastating Loss for Congress."

The ongoing violence in Israel and the Gaza Strip has had Lawfare Senior Editor Scott R. Anderson revisiting the joint 2018 Brookings Institution/Center for a New American Security report on "Ending Gaza's Perpetual Crisis," to which he made some small contributions. In Scott’s view, it expertly outlines the tragic cycle of violence that keeps recurring in Gaza and provides some practical prescriptions for moving past it—all of which are particularly interesting as one of its lead co-authors, Hady Amr, is now the deputy assistant secretary of state leading U.S. engagement on Israeli-Palestinian issues.

Scott has also been reading the concurring opinion by Judge Kevin Newsom, an appointee of President Trump, in Sierra v. City of Hallandale Beach (11th Cir. 2021). It's the latest instance in which a conservative judge has expressed misgivings about modern standing doctrine, which has traditionally been seen as a crown jewel of judicial conservatism and stands as one of late Justice Antonin Scalia's foremost legacies.

Chief Operating Officer David Priess—who has a habit of explicitly pulling lessons from history to illuminate current national security and rule of law issues ranging from presidential impeachments and other forms of removal to the appointment of intelligence leaders to  presidential illnesses—has been thinking a lot lately about the decline of the Roman republic and its parallels to our times.

As such, he's just finished re-reading the masterful “The Storm Before the Storm,” in which Mike Duncan richly describes how creeping precedents enable small instances of political violence to get out of control and produce disastrous outcomes for politics and society. David is now diving deeper into the life and times of a key actor in that long drama by reading “Sulla: The Last Republican” by Arthur Keaveney.

Quinta Jurecic, Lawfare senior editor, has been reading “Messengers of the Right” by Nicole Hemmer—a study of the rise of right-wing media in midcentury America as a foundational component of the conservative movement. It's useful context for understanding the importance of the far-right media ecosystem today.

She's also reading a FiveThirtyEight article, “How The Republican Push To Restrict Voting Could Affect Our Elections,” on the possible effects on future elections of new voter restrictions inspired by Trump's lies about the integrity of the 2020 vote.

Alan Rozenshtein, senior editor and professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, has been enjoying The Pursuit of Power: Europe 1815-1914, a wonderful, sprawling history of Europe in the 19th century, when the small western outcropping of the Eurasian peninsula reached the height of its global power.

Managing Editor Jacob Schulz is enjoying a Washington Post story that provides an update in the saga of the Pennsylvania mom charged with cyber harassment for making deep fake videos of her daughter’s cheerleading competitors. Keep your eyes peeled for the shoutout to Bobby Chesney and Danielle Citron’s “liar’s dividend.”

He’s listening to a terrific episode of the Acquired podcast about EPIC Games, the enormous company currently entrenched in a legal battle with Apple. The episode dissects EPIC’s business model and strategy, and tries to contextualize why exactly EPIC has picked an expensive legal fight with Apple and the App Store.

Associate Editor Rohini Kurup is reading an article in FiveThirtyEight that asks: “Militias pose a serious threat. So why is it so hard to stop them?” The answer is that it’s complicated—in part because it can be difficult to determine which groups to go after.

Rohini is also reading a piece published in ProPublica that reveals Trump administration officials used a special terrorism unit, Customs and Border Protection’s Tactical Terrorism Response Team, to question immigration lawyers at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Associate Editor Bryce Klehm is reading Brookings Senior Fellow Ryan Hass’s latest book, “Stronger: Adapting America's China Strategy In An Age of Competitive Interdependence.” One key point from Hass’s analysis—the U.S. should focus less on stopping China’s rise and instead should focus on strengthening itself domestically if it wants to compete with China.

Coupled with Hass’s book, Bryce has also been listening to several ChinaTalk podcast episodes, including a new episode titled, “Industrial Policy: How the Green New Deal’s Architects Would Do IP (Industrial Policy).” While you may not agree with the architects of the Green New Deal, the discussion is insightful and thought provoking.

Matt Gluck, Lawfare intern, is reading an article in the Atlantic that outlines the danger and lack of accountability surrounding persistent police fire at moving vehicles. Matt is also reading a New Yorker piece considering the extreme vulnerability of U.S. critical infrastructure in light of the recent Colonial Pipeline ransomware hack.

Lawfare’s Quote of the Week

From “What’s in the Jan. 6 Commission Bill?” by Quinta Jurecic, Benjamin Wittes and Molly Reynolds: “Indeed, under this legislation, the commission could act a whole lot like a congressional committee, with divided staff chosen more for political loyalty and ties than for expertise and investigative seriousness. Under this bipartisan compromise, the policy will really be only as good as the people.”

From the Lawfare Vault:

June 28, 2017: “Ransomware Remixed: The Song Remains the Same,” by Trey Herr

Oct. 26, 2018: “In Trump We Trust? Israel and the Trump Administration,” by Daniel Byman and Tamara Cofman Wittes

Aug. 23, 2019: “The Little-Noticed Way the McGahn Litigation Could Shape Congressional Oversight,” by Jonathan Shaub

Let us know what you think!