The "Life After Cassidy" Edition

Rational Security

This week, Quinta and Scott were joined by Lawfare's new Managing Editor, Tyler McBrien, to hash through the week's national security news, including:

• “(John) Dean for a Day.” Surprise testimony by former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson has shed unprecedented light on Donald Trump’s actions on Jan. 6th and reinvigorated discussions of possible criminal charges, among other consequences. Was this the smoking gun? What might it change moving forward?

• “The Prince and the Proffer.” A federal judge has asked the federal government to weigh in on whether Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman has sovereign immunity in relation to civil lawsuits over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. What legal questions does this raise and what will the United States do?

• “When Federalism Gets Weird.” The Supreme Court has taken up Moore v. Harper, promising that it will soon weigh in on the controversial proposition that the Constitution gives state legislatures authority over federal elections that even state constitutions and courts cannot supersede. What could this case mean for American democracy?

For object lessons, Quinta endorsed a visual demonstration of the challenges of historical research posted by law professor Julian Mortenson. Scott urged listeners to think outside the box while using their grills this summer, most notably by making the most under appreciated grill option: grill pizza. And Tyler endorsed Rebecca Solnit's new biography of George Orwell as a gardener, Orwell's Roses.

Some of the other pieces we discussed in this episode include:

• Alan Rozenshtein and Jed Shugerman's article for Lawfare documenting how Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony convinced the former President Trump could be criminally prosecuted;
• Former federal judge and conservative legal luminary Michael Luttig's Twitter thread on the originalism and federalism issues with independent state legislature doctrine.

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