“There are serious questions on both the domestic law front and international law front,” Professor Elena Chachko (@elenachachko.bsky.social) told @reuters.com: www.reuters.com/world/americ... #BerkeleyLaw

Delighted to see JIEL 28(3) out in the world, which includes my article 'Dollar Dominance, De-Dollarisation, and International Law'. The rest of the issue is packed with sharp work (inc @jbentonheath.bsky.social, @dcpeat.bsky.social, @elenachachko.bsky.social). academic.oup.com/jiel/article...

The great @abenewman.bsky.social and I have a new paper in JIEL titled Building Norms of Economic coercion. It's a roadmap for thinking about the legitimacy of different instances of economic coercion, from unilateral sanctions to the tariff wars. Link below

Listen: Assistant Professor Elena Chachko @elenachachko.bsky.social on BBC's Wake Up to Money discussing the recent U.S. Court of Appeals ruling on President Trump's tariffs: www.bbc.com/audio/play/m... #UCBerkeleyLaw

On Friday, the State Department began firing over 1,000 employees. In Feb, @SrAnderson.bsky.social and @ElenaChachko.bsky.social explained President Trump's "One Voice" executive order which asserted broad presidential prerogative over foreign affairs. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/one-...

Spoke with @npr.org about presidential use of emergency authority and our present moment @ucberkeleylaw.bsky.social

"This is what happens when you take an instrument that has been very useful for many administrations, for many years, and now you overextend it," says @elenachachko.bsky.social, assistant professor of law at UC Berkeley Law on presidential use of emergency powers www.npr.org/2025/06/09/n... @npr.org

By 5-4 vote, #SCOTUS *denies* Trump’s emergency application in foreign aid funding cases, but in a way that sends things back to the district court *before* the payments will have to be made: www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...

Calls are getting louder to allow the transfer of Russian frozen assets to support Ukraine as the U.S. pulls back. About 250B (of roughly 300) are held in EU. When this proposal was debated before many—Biden officials included—concluded that such transfer would likely be unlawful.

Read today's Executive Functions Morning Roundup: the next round in the battle over the admin's effort to fire Hampton Dellinger, more demotions for DOJ prosecutors, commentary from @sranderson.bsky.social and @elenachachko.bsky.social, and more (first three stories below). tinyurl.com/a9pz5834

‘One Voice’ and the Trump Administration’s Conduct of Foreign Affairs www.lawfaremedia.org/article/one-... by Prof @elenachachko.bsky.social and @sranderson.bsky.social @lawfare.bsky.social

Interesting choice of language there with “one voice”… www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Looking to make sense of our world of sanctions and economic statecraft? (Yeah, me too!) Next Friday, February 21 at @fordhamlawnyc.bsky.social, the Fordham International Law Journal symposium on Economic Sanctions: go.activecalendar.com/FordhamUnive...

"PAUSING FOREIGN CORRUPT PRACTICES ACT ENFORCEMENT TO FURTHER AMERICAN ECONOMIC AND NATIONAL SECURITY" (?????)

For BBC radio, some analysis of President Trump’s executive orders imposing tariffs and eliminating the de minimis exception for products from China, Mexico and Canada (the latter two on hold). Around the halfway point: bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/... @ucberkeleylaw.bsky.social

Quick blog post to share some great explainers on agency heads, our civil service, and Trump's early actions. Highlighting series from @theconversation.com & @washingtonpost.com and @nicholasbednar.bsky.social's excellent explainers @lawfare.bsky.social. www.yalejreg.com/nc/agency-he...

Attn #adlaw nerds: Call for Papers for Tenth Annual Administrative Law New Scholarship Roundtable here @umichlaw.bsky.social 5/19-5/20: www.yalejreg.com/nc/call-for-...

Also, among the Biden EOs rescinded: Executive Order 14094 (Modernizing Regulatory Review). Big Biden effort to revamp WH (OIRA) review of significant regulations. @YaleJREG held a symposium on that EO when it was issued in 2023. yalejreg.com/topic/symposiu…

For ad law folks - among the dozens of EOs issued there’s also one formalizing the structure of what has so far been known as DOGE. It’s going to be an office within the EEOP, not a full fledged agency, with broad access to agency infrastructure. One implication: administrator needn’t be confirmed.

Starting a new (free) substack today with Bob Bauer, called "Executive Functions." We're covering executive power issues in detail. Welcome here: executivefunctions.substack.com/p/welcome-to... Please subscribe here: executivefunctions.substack.com/subscribe First substantive piece tomorrow.

As Supreme Court Sets TikTok Case for Oral Argument, Senator McConnell, Champion of First Amendment in Citizens United, Files Amicus Brief Saying Government Can Shut Down Platform to stop “deployment of subversive enemy propaganda through algorithmic curation.” electionlawblog.org?p=147883

The Supreme Court has “signalled that entities operating platforms have First Amendment interests,” Prof. Aziz Huq told @financialtimes.com about the TikTok ruling, adding that the Court has also been “open to freedom of speech limits in the context of national security.”

...and logic. Allowing sanctioned states to rebalance would defeat the point of sanctions. FWIW, I wrestle with the problem in academic.oup.com/jiel/article..., suggesting a two track approach, with sanctions fitting better into something like XX.

BREAKING: Federal judge blocks Biden admin rule allowing DACA recipients to get health insurance on the ACA marketplace exchanges in 19 GOP-led states that sued. Judge Daniel Traynor, a Trump appointee in North Dakota, issued the ruling: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Wall St Journal profile of cybersec expert Brian Krebs. Good overview of state of danger on the Internet. www.wsj.com/tech/cyberse...

Thanks, @gwyneth.bsky.social @ucberkeleylaw.bsky.social, for hosting this conversation on Voices Carry!

Berkeley Law "Voices Carry" host @gwyneth.bsky.social talks with profs Katerina Linos & @elenachachko.bsky.social about how emergency powers — often associated with overreach and #authoritarianism — can be used in legitimate and transformative ways. www.law.berkeley.edu/podcast-epis...

Out of all publications, I'd expect Beltway mainstay The Washington Post to know that a federal agency created by statute simply cannot "be scrapped" because someone said so. It's gonna be a long four years.

Just as US undermines administrative state, China works to ‘provide legal support for countering hegemonism’. Important reminder that economic warfare rests on bureaucratic competence. www.nytimes.com/2024/11/27/b...

Some news: amid rapid growth and some over-enforcement of its community guidelines, Bluesky trust and safety chief @aaron.bsky.team tells me the company will quadruple the size of its content moderation team www.platformer.news/bluesky-grow...

11/ Relatedly: Will major questions doctrine check Trump’s tariffs pursuant to super-broad congressional authorizations? Many other questions on relationship between MQD and broad presidential statutory authorization in foreign affairs/national security.

10/ Will DOGE (as Ramaswamy suggested) corral major questions doctrine and Loper Bright to help kill agency rules? Or will those precedents stand in the way of DOGE’s initiatives? Some of both? (Same questions for other Trump deregulatory initiatives.)

The most basic problem with this op-ed is that it does not understand how government under law works. It masks this ignorance with buzzwords, but the result is incoherence. For example, it reads “the President owes lawmaking deference to Congress.” But the President participates in lawmaking. (1/6)

The Berkeley Info School is hiring an open-rank tenure-track professor in "digital security, safety and trust". Please help get the word out, and if you're working in this space, apply! (Deadline Jan 3.) aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF04668

Thanks to @elenachachko.bsky.social for conducting this podcast interview about my new book, “Historical Gloss and Foreign Affairs.” Elena’s questions reflect a close reading of the book and are the perfect mix of encouragement and careful scrutiny. www.law.berkeley.edu/podcast-epis...

Such a pleasure to host @curtbradley.bsky.social at @ucberkeleylaw.bsky.social and dive into his new book, Historical Gloss & Foreign Affairs. Listen to our conversation on history & constitutional meaning, gloss & originalism, and why the President doesn't always win in a new Borderlines episode:

Biden looks to escalate economic warfare before leaving office.

To navigate the geoeconomic challenges of today and tomorrow, the European Union must take steps to create a European economic security network—and do so quickly, argue @abenewman.bsky.social and Agathe Demarais.