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Patrick G Eddington
Past: CIA analyst, House senior policy advisor, USAR officer. Present: Think tank guy, dog dad. Always: Author, writer, researcher, Bill of Rights defender, 21st century Anti-Federalist.
Newsletter
Nothing "Great" About It: World War I, the Rise of the American National Security State, and the Espionage Act
The "Great War" ushered in the modern national security apparatus, and with it, a secrecy law as draconian as it is ineffective at protecting real secrets
Newsletter
Book Review: "Free Speech and Turbulent Freedom: The Dangerous Allure of Censorship in the Digital Era," by Michael J. Glennon
A former Senate Foreign Relations Committee staffer-turn-law professor's full throated, timely defense of the First Amendment
Newsletter
Compromised Overseers: A Department of Justice Story
When the Inspector General Act was passed in 1978, its backers hoped it would usher in a new age of government oversight. A case involving the Justice Department demonstrates that was magical thinking
Newsletter
Sunshine Week (or Why "State Secrets" Suck)
The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) was intended to make the federal government more transparent. Its author would be appalled at how courts have eviscerated it. Congress should fix it.
Newsletter
Ballot Disqualification: Another SCOTUS Credibility Hit
All nine agreed states can't enforce a federal constitutional provision governing ballot access, but three accused the majority of insulating past and future insurrectionists from disqualification
Newsletter
Congress at 235
Conceived as the voice and protector of the people, it has instead too frequently been an instrument of repression
Newsletter
Biden and Surveillance: Hypocrisy and End‐Runs
In which the Administration bans China from buying your data but not the FBI, and how it links to the FISA reauthorization fight.
Newsletter
Governmental Institutional Racism: A National Security Threat
House and Senate GOP efforts to revive a racist Trump era program targeting people of Chinese heritage are morally repugnant and endanger our national security
Newsletter
Government Surveillance Transparency: Preliminary Injunction Edition
Sometimes, you just gotta sue to fight the Feds
Newsletter
Book Reivew: "The MAGA Diaries" by Tina Nguyen
A misleadingly titled book saves the best political and historical insights for the footnotes
Newsletter
FISA Update: Legislative Implosion
Speaker Johnson pulls his "compromise" FISA bill in the face of intense opposition on and off the Hill