A couple of years ago, I learned about "LOVEINT" from Noah -- that intelligence community employees have used these sec. 702 backdoor searches to spy on their dates and partners.

AFRICOM has announced another strike in Somalia on 4/9. This appears to be the 53rd of the year and the fourth this month.

www.newamerica.org/insights/ame...

In the past year there have been quite literally a dozen War Powers Resolution votes.

Before I became an American, I was Lebanese. Parts of my family live in Lebanon.

Anyway, you don't need those bona fides to feel this way, but what is happening in Lebanon right now is a complete outrage. The people there, who mostly are just trying to carve out a living, don't deserve this.

Helpful thread pointing out errors in Glenn Gerstell's Lawfare piece about Section 702. I'll add another one... 1/3 bsky.app/profile/jake...

Yes, this op-ed did not end how I was anticipating it would. Had to re-read the sentence with "war powers resolution authorizing the war" a couple of times.

The Truth Behind Section 702 Query Statistics Authors write that Congress must now impose a warrant requirement for Section 702 access to Americans' communications.

Opponents of reforming FISA Section 702 cite a government statistic showing “only” a few thousand warrantless searches of Americans’ communications in 2024-25. In @justsecurity.org, @hannahajames.bsky.social & I discuss the truth behind that misleading statistic. www.justsecurity.org/135283/truth...

Think #2 -- the uncertainty about how the postwar international order might've affected the constitutional order, particularly when so much of constitutional war powers had been understood in tandem with the law of nations -- cannot be overstated, so much so that Congress addressed it in the WPR.

Opinion | How to Respond, Right Now, to Trump’s Boat Strikes

The @brennancenter.org wrote about the need for a select committee to investigate the abuse of exceptional war powers after the start of the boat strikes policy. Imagine it could be bipartisan given the leadership from Massie and Paul on this issue.

www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/o...

📣“Congressional authorization isn’t just a box-checking exercise:"

"It’s a means of ensuring that the solemn decision to go to war is made democratically and accountably" -- not at the whims of one person.

Yet not someone with relevant foreign relations law, let alone international law, expertise and scholarship.

From Iran to Latin America to Africa, the Trump admin. has dramatically surged US military strikes around the 🌍.

Yet some strikes, like in Nigeria, have received little attention or scrutiny.

Thank you Reps Jacobs and Crow for holding the admin. accountable to the law and to the American people.

In Aug 2003, Colin Powell wrote to Paul Bremer that US troops on raids in Iraq “shouldn’t be taking the press with us or releasing photos” because the raids looked ugly.

To DOD’s credit, it ignored Powell and didn’t begin to curtail embedding until a decade later.

www.thetimes.com/article/00b2...

Even when we are attacked, the president must go to Congress for authorization to prosecute offensive hostilities. FDR went to Congress to seek a war declaration against Japan the day after Pearl Harbor. That war declaration served as our legal basis for entering World War II.

Congress must do its constitutional duty, reversing this trend of escalation and unaccountability. /fin

We're now facing a major war with no clear end-date or strategy. U.S. military personnel have already died. U.S. planes have already been shot down. This isn't just "precision strikes" or a so-called "limited law enforcement operation." /6 x.com/glcarlstrom/...

This is a pattern of abuse, where the abuses have become more and more dramatic as this Congress has failed to check the president.  By rejecting War Powers Resolutions to rein in these earlier abuses, this Congress has apparently emboldened him. /5

That obviously has not happened here. 

It also didn't happen (1) this past summer, when Trump ordered "precision strikes" in Iran, (2) this past fall, when Trump started targeting civilians on the high seas, or (3) in January, when Trump ordered the Maduro operation. /4

As commander-in-chief, the president does have inherent power to "repel sudden attacks," i.e., to use truly defensive force.

But for anything else, the president must convince Congress and the American people that war -- spilling American blood and treasure -- makes sense. /3

Founders Online: “Helvidius” Number 4, [14 September] 1793 “Helvidius” Number 4, [14 September] 1793

Don't just take it from me -- take it from James Madison:

"In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be found than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace to the legislature, and not to the executive department." /2 founders.archives.gov/documents/Ma...

Trump's Iran Strikes Are Unconstitutional Congress must act.

Trump's "massive and ongoing operation" against Iran is a clear violation of the Constitution's separation of powers.

In our democracy, the president does not have the kingly power to plunge the nation into war without democratic debate and sanction. /1 www.brennancenter.org/our-work/ana...

No Legal Basis for Invading Venezuela 1989’s U.S. military action in Panama offers no constitutional cover for Trump’s Venezuela attack.

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

Trump's Iran Strikes Are Unconstitutional Congress must act.

Trump acted unilaterally and lawlessly in striking Iran — without congressional authorization and absent any imminent threat to the United States. @ebrightyon.bsky.social on why Congress needs to act.

The Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the power to decide when the nation goes to war. President Trump’s strikes on Iran are flatly unconstitutional. There’s been no deliberation, no vote, no clear justification. This is a flagrant abuse of executive power.

25/ Congress should also use its power to close the data broker loophole and strengthen privacy protections against AI-enabled surveillance. It should demand transparency about how the military is using AI in hostilities – a critical first step towards regulating the technology.

13/ Then there’s the use of AI to “assist weapons targeting without sufficient human oversight.” All attacks – AI-assisted or not – must comply with U.S. law and the international law of war.

Defense Dept. and Anthropic Square Off in Dispute Over A.I. Safety

1/ The dispute between Anthropic and DOD over the limits of using AI in warfare is escalating. I’ll have more to say on what these limits should be in a @brennancenter.org report out next month. But for now, here’s what you need to know, and what’s truly at stake 🧵:

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/t...

US military averaged just under one air strike per day in Somalia in the first month of 2026. The highest or second-highest monthly Somalia strike numbers ever, rivaled only by Dec 2025.

2025, the highest year for Somalia strikes yet, had 140+ strikes (10-15 most months).

Major Somalia strikes update.

Our data now has a fully accounted for and confirmed strike count for Jan 2026 and to date. 26 strikes in Jan and 28 to date.

This includes two strikes w/o press release (1/20 and 1/26) and clarification of all multiple strikes.

www.newamerica.org/future-secur...