Ben Heath

White House blew past legal concerns in deadly strikes on drug boats The Trump administration sidestepped skeptical lawyers across national security agencies as it pursued a military campaign against alleged narcotraffickers, officials say.

detailed WashPost account of how Trump and Stephen Miller sidelined serious lawyers so they could fabricate a justification for committing murder

www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Spotify is helping ICE recruit more agents to infringe our rights and terrorize our communities. Stop paying for or using the app until Spotify stops running ads for ICE: indivisible.org/cancel-spotify?source=bluesky

Brett's right. A must-read.

They misidentified the intern. The judge told them they had misidentified the intern. But instead of double checking, they took that as an affront to their authority. So they surrounded the judge's car and threatened to smash the windows to get to the intern.

They had misidentified the intern.

Terrific resource. Note that while many of the strike announcements assert a link to a designated foreign terrorist organization (FTO), only some specify which (there are dozens of possibilities) or mention nationality of those killed. In other cases, is there too much uncertainty?

Trump Regulatory Policy: 2025 Compendium - Yale Journal on Regulation As part of my prep for this year’s ABA Administrative Law Conference, I put together a list of the regulatory policy documents that have been issued since the start of President Trump’s second term. L...

It's up! www.yalejreg.com/nc/trump-reg...

This is incredibly useful. Thanks!!

You never have to hand it to LLMs. But anything that causes the MTurk research bubble to burst would be a welcome correction to academic knowledge-production.

This doesn't end with Trump, it doesn't end with his removal from power or his death. He's reorganized half of the political nation in a fascist-authoritarian mode, disinhibiting the worst among us to resume the most disgusting & evil traditions of belief & action in our country's history.

Today at 4:00PM EST/3:00 PM CST, I'll be at the ABA Administrative Law Conference speaking with @ajosephoconnell.bsky.social, @nicholashandler.bsky.social, and Philip Howard about the future of the civil service. Have been looking forward to this conversation all semester!

There’s a through the looking glass quality to discussions of what constitute “lawful orders” within an executive branch where POTUS asserts authority to say what the law is regardless of legal reality.

If POTUS orders it and he (or his yes men at OLC) say it is legal, then it is a “lawful order.”

The section labeled “Credibility“ beginning at page 6 is worth reading in full. For Civ Pro folks, it’s notable that the section also indirectly cites Scott v Harris.

Published today—at the start of Transgender Awareness Week—in the American Journal of International Law, my new book review, "International Law as a Site for Queer Joy?" arrives at a moment that feels both personal and profound.

Now up at @ssrn.bsky.social : papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

State Dept's FTO Designations Undermine Claims of "Antifa" Threat Leading counter-extremism expert unpacks the administration's claimed designation of "Antifa Groups"

Excellent Fact Check

On State Department's designation of "Antifa Groups" as foreign terrorist organizations

3/4 have no apparent "Antifa" anything
4/4 have no apparent statutorily required threat to US national security

by counter-extremism expert @tomjoscelyn.bsky.social

Top military lawyer raised legal concerns about boat strikes The lawyer at U.S. Southern Command, which oversees the operations against alleged drug-smuggling boats near Venezuela, disagreed that the strikes are legal and was overruled, according to six sources...

“The senior military lawyer for the combatant command overseeing lethal strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats near Venezuela disagreed with the Trump administration’s position that the operations are lawful — and his views were sidelined” per 6 sources

www.nbcnews.com/politics/nat...

This is the Gig Surveillance Economy: ssrn.com/abstract=388...

Good thread on the impact of the upcoming Supreme Court ruling on the IEEPA tariffs.

This is the correct choice.

Justice Department official told prosecutors that U.S. should 'just sink' drug boats NPR interviews with current and former officials reveal more of the backstory around the military's strikes in the Caribbean.

No surprise that Mr. "We May Need to Tell the Courts 'Fuck You'" was also pushing the administration's campaign of extrajudicial killings.
www.npr.org/2025/11/17/g...

Trump Escalates War on Leftists With Antifa Foreign Terror Label Move cites NSPM-7, saying four European Antifa groups espoused "anti-Christianity," "anti-capitalism," and "anti-Americanism"

My NSPM-7 coverage has for weeks been met with smug assurances that there's no law for domestic terrorism. Well, the Trump admin just designated Antifa groups as Foreign Terror Orgs - for which there is a law:
www.kenklippenstein.com/p/trump-slap...

This is excellent and persuasive. NYC is not the whole country, as the Mamdani skeptics on here like to say, but there are nonetheless a lot of transferrable lessons in here. Thank you.

If We Want Mamdani to Beat the NYPD, the Left Must Build Power We won’t be able to push Mamdani, or anyone else, to undermine police power unless we become a force to be reckoned with.

Zohran showed that a socialist can take City Hall—but the ruling class still forced him to keep Jessica Tisch at the NYPD. For Zohran to fight the police unions and win, the Left has to build power beyond the ballot box.

New from me for The Nation:
www.thenation.com/article/poli...

This is one of the most important issues that AJIL has put out in recent years.

The elongated section on “Contemporary Practice of the US” represents an effort by the AJIL Board to set out and critically examine the US approach to intl law at our current moment, through a series of focused essays.

Two major issues that this OLC opinion likely addresses are:

1) Does POTUS have authority to use force w/o congressional authorization? Will no doubt cite longstanding OLC two-prong test.

2) Do these premeditated killings violate various US criminal laws? Expect supposed NIACs are critical here.

Palantir update via www.wired.com/story/alex-k...

Exclusive: UK suspends some intelligence sharing with US over boat strike concerns in major break | CNN Politics The United Kingdom is no longer sharing intelligence with the US about suspected drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean because it does not want to be complicit in US military strikes and believes ...

One of many costs to US murder (sorry, no better word for it) in Caribbean:

"United Kingdom is no longer sharing intelligence with the US about suspected drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean because it does not want to be complicit in US military strikes and believes the attacks are illegal."

💯

At this point, the easiest way to unify the Democrats would be a change in leadership.