Katherine Yon Ebright

Latest strike in Somalia brings declared count to 92 (confirmed count and is one strike despite plural via query) plus one declared ground op (not counted by AFRICOM as a strike bc not airstrike).

Our tally also includes two alleged strikes this year for 95.

www.africom.mil/pressrelease...

W.M.M. v. Trump The lawsuit challenges President Trump's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members.

Proud to have filed another amicus brief -- alongside @cato.org and law professors @ilyasomin.bsky.social, John Dehn, and Geoffrey Corn -- in the ongoing Alien Enemies Act litigation.

The courts have the power to stop Trump's abuse of this wartime law.

www.brennancenter.org/our-work/res...

The Trump administration said that any Venezuelan immigrant it targets under the Alien Enemies Act "shall be ineligible for any relief or protection from removal" — including legal protections against deporting people to likely torture or persecution.

The AEA must be repealed.

The Trump administration said that any Venezuelan immigrant it targets under the Alien Enemies Act "shall be ineligible for any relief or protection from removal" -- including legal protections against deporting people to likely torture or persecution.

The AEA must be repealed.

This is a visual angle on the destruction in Gaza that has been mostly missing: what the huge expanse of Gaza City that has received the IDF earthmover treatment actually looks like, not top-down but horizontally. The fully razed area of Shejaiya just stretches on and on—you can’t even see the…

FWIW, the admin is definitely relying not only on FTO status but also on SDGT status under IEEPA -- which, as you know, is the law the admin is *also* using for worldwide tariffs.

Cartel de los Soles, one of the groups reportedly targeted, is an SDGT but not an FTO.

John Yoo, in an OLC memo from a month after the September 11 terrorist attacks, explaining when crime becomes war.

Caginess about which group makes me think Cartel de los Soles, which isn't a designated FTO but is a SDGT... under IEEPA. IEEPA for tariffs, IEEPA for war, IEEPA the everything-statute.

In law school, we definitely were lectured on/assigned case notes that discussed Bickel's Least Dangerous Branch, but I don't think we actually read any excerpts from it -- let alone the whole book. Common experience?

Truancy and related youth crime are real issues in DC, and I'm not sure anyone has a great answer to them. Whatever the answer is, though, it's not this.

I've had packages porch pirated in DC... but I also once dropped my phone while biking (fell out of my pocket, probably?), located it through find-my-phone, and recovered it at a CVS where someone had turned it in for safekeeping.

Question from @slotkin.senate.gov at Senate Armed Services Committee hearing with DOD personnel responsible for kill-or-capture missions

Pentagon: U.S. Counterterrorism Efforts Have Failed Africans A new Pentagon report sheds light on AFRICOM’s disastrous counterterrorism campaigns.

“Clearly, there’s been too little congressional and public oversight of these military efforts [with partner forces in Africa] to determine whether they are strategic and effective.”
theintercept.com/2025/08/05/p...

Maybe they should release all extant OLC opinions…

Another D.C. budget tidbit: @chmnmendelson.bsky.social says he has *not* funded Initiative 83 in his version of the budget that gets a first vote tomorrow. So, for now, the ranked-choice voting and semi-open primaries ballot initiative approved by voters would not be implemented.

Courts Can Check, and Have Checked, Executives’ Military Judgment Leah Tulin and Katherine Yon Ebright of the Brennan Center make the case against judicial deference to Trump's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

In this compelling @volokhc.bsky.social guest post, @ebrightyon.bsky.social and Leah Tulin of @brennancenter.org explain why courts should not defer to Trump's invocation of Alien Enemies Act of 1798 as tool for peacetime mass deportation: reason.com/volokh/2025/...

Amicus Brief in W.M.M. v. Trump The lawsuit challenges President Trump's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members.

A fuller argument regarding the ability of courts to check "manifestly unauthorized exercises of power" is available in the @brennancenter.org's amicus brief with @cato.org, @ilyasomin.bsky.social, and law professor John Dehn. /fin
www.brennancenter.org/our-work/cou...

Today's courts should simply follow these well-reasoned cases -- Sterling, Milligan, Schueller, etc. – which allow them to protect rights in the face of unsubstantiated executive claims of military or wartime necessity. /8

In Ex parte Milligan, notwithstanding the government's argument that Indiana was "threatened with invasion," the Court relied on its own "judicial knowledge that, in Indiana, the Federal authority was always unopposed, and its courts always open." /7

Ex parte Milligan, 71 U.S. 2 (1866) Ex parte Milligan: It is unconstitutional to try civilians by military tribunals unless there is no civilian court available.

In addition to following the logic of Sterling, Schueller cites Ex parte Milligan, a Civil War case in which the Supreme Court rejected the use of military commissions in Indiana. /6
supreme.justia.com/cases/federa...

Executive Order 9066: Resulting in Japanese-American Incarceration (1942) EnlargeDownload Link Citation: Executive Order 9066, February 19, 1942; General Records of the Unites States Government; Record Group 11; National Archives. View All Pages in the National Archives Cat...

In Schueller, the court rejected the application of Executive Order 9066 in Pennsylvania because "normal civilian life of the area was being pursued . . . and it could not be honestly said that ordinary law did not adequately secure public safety." /5
www.archives.gov/milestone-do...

Schueller v. Drum, 51 F. Supp. 383 (E.D. Pa. 1943) Schueller v. Drum, 51 F. Supp. 383 (E.D. Pa. 1943) case opinion from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania

In World War II, this rule prevented the federal military order -- Executive Order 9066 -- that resulted in the incarceration of 100,000+ West Coast Japanese Americans from being extended to German Americans on the East Coast.

Consider Schueller v. Drum. /4
law.justia.com/cases/federa...

The Court recognized that governors, as commanders in chief of their states, are vested with discretion to determine whether an emergency has arisen... but it also said their decision-making had to fall within "a permitted range of honest judgment." /3

Sterling v. Constantin, 287 U.S. 378 (1932) Sterling v. Constantin

The strongest cases for this are Sterling v. Constantin (1932) and its progeny.

In Sterling, the Supreme Court countermanded a governor's imposition of martial law because the courts found "there never any actual riot, tumult, or insurrection." /2
supreme.justia.com/cases/federa...

Appeals Court Weighs Trump’s Use of Alien Enemies Act for Deportations

One of the key issues in the Alien Enemies Act litigation is whether the courts can countermand the executive's proclamation of an "invasion" or other military judgments.

There is, in fact, caselaw that suggests they can. /1
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/30/u...

Amicus Brief in W.M.M. v. Trump The lawsuit challenges President Trump's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged Venezuelan gang members.

Very cool that our and @cato.org / @ilyasomin.bsky.social's Alien Enemies Act amicus brief was cited favorably by a judge (key contention "has some purchase") at oral argument in the Fifth Circuit.

www.brennancenter.org/our-work/cou...

I'm deeply proud of my work on this brief.

Dozens of Japanese American and other AAPI orgs are urging the courts to remember the lessons of the WWII Japanese American incarceration, and urge them to fulfill their role in our constitutional democracy to check the Trump administration's overreach.

Amicus Brief in W.M.M. v. Trump The Brennan Center, along with co-counsel Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP and Ilya Somin, filed an amicus brief in a case challenging President Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act. The brie...

Yesterday the @BrennanCenter filed a brief with @CatoInstitute, Prof. @IlyaSomin, and Prof. John Dehn in support of ACLU’s lawsuit challenging President Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act invocation. 1/6 www.brennancenter.org/our-work/cou...

The Brennan Center filed a brief challenging President Trump's use of the Alien Enemies Act.

The Brennan Center and @cato.org filed a brief in support of the @aclu.org ’s challenge to the administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to detain and deport Venezuelans. The president exceeded the limits of his powers by invoking a wartime law to conduct peacetime immigration enforcement.