"Temporarily Closed"

Never thought those words would give me all kinds of warm fuzzy feelings

Good Morning:

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Yesterday on #DogShirtTV, the estimable

Holly Berkley Fletcher

and I congratulated the estimable

Anastasiia Lapatina

on personally blowing up the Kerch Bridge. Then all three of us welcomed the estimable

Jonathan V. Last

to talk about founding The Bulwark and the process of journalistic writing:

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Yesterday On Lawfare

Compiled by the estimable Caroline Cornett

Avoiding Praetorianism in Civil-Military Relations

Kori Schake responds to Graham Parsons’s argument that the military has an obligation to resist legal orders when the civilian authority threatens civil society and the neutrality of the military. Schake argues that encouraging the military to disobey lawful orders endangers democracy and suggests that it is the role of other branches of civilian government, not the military, to check the executive’s power.

It is not “neutrality” for the military to assume the role of adjudicating constitutional interpretation, because inviting the military to become the balance of power among their elected civilian superiors is a genuine danger to democracy as well. In longing for someone to save us from the political problems of our own creation, Parsons recommended a course of action that would create a different problem, but one just as corrosive to democracy. Emboldening the military to ride in and save us from ourselves would be another kind of danger.

Regulatory Misalignment and the RAISE Act

Kevin Frazier explains why tort-based liability schemes to mitigate harms associated with artificial intelligence (AI)—proposed by New York's Responsible AI Safety and Education (RAISE) Act—will fail. Frazier highlights how AI’s diffuse, rapidly evolving nature requires a regulatory system that can adapt as the technology develops.

Crafting rules that are both flexible enough to accommodate rapid technological evolution and robust enough to safeguard against significant risks is a delicate balancing act. Ill-conceived regimes risk stifling innovation, creating an unlevel playing field for competitors, or failing to prevent the very harms they aim to address. The RAISE Act serves as a case study of such a flawed approach. Asking whether the act fulfills the ideal aims of AI regulation—incentivizing innovation, fostering responsible development, providing redress, and ensuring predictability for all stakeholders—returns a clear answer: no. This conclusion should inform AI governance efforts in states considering similar models and provide insight into the present debate over allowing Congress to lead in shaping the AI policy landscape.

The Ukraine-U.S. ‘Minerals Deal’: Impossible Choice for a Nation at War

Mykhailo Soldatenko breaks down the terms of the recently signed deal establishing the United States-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund. Soldatenko emphasizes that the agreement’s lack of security guarantees and uneven revenue sharing—determined by a yet-undisclosed partnership agreement—illuminate the difficult choices Ukraine faced in agreeing to the deal.

The publicly available information suggests that Ukraine likely traded robust commercial incentives for continued U.S. military assistance to defend itself against Russia for less or little revenue from the partnership in the long term. Indeed, the more assistance the U.S. provides, the less long-term revenue from the fund Ukraine would get. One member of parliament succinctly summarized the Ukrainian choice: “This is about the fact that the world is pragmatic and cynical, and we need to survive in it.”

Podcasts

On Lawfare Daily, Scott R. Anderson sits down with Peter Harrell to discuss two rulings that enjoined President Donald Trump's tariffs, the similarities and differences between the courts’ decisions, and what it might mean for the other uses of the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

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Today’s #BeastOfTheDay is the baby tapir, seen here having a salad-bath:

ptdefiancezoo

A post shared by @ptdefiancezoo

And seen here with a stolen treat:

ptdefiancezoo

A post shared by @ptdefiancezoo

In honor of today’s Beast, remember to include carrots in all your activities.

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Tell Me Something Interesting

Sometimes, the “Tell Me Something Interesting” feature discusses some matter relevant to the news. Other times, it involves some historical anniversary. But ultimately, this feature is about me—EJ Wittes—telling you, the reader, something that interests me.

Which means that, when I discover something absolutely wild, I don’t have to invent a reason that it relates to current events. I can just tell you.

Ok. Wait for it.

Human parthenogenesis is real.

So, for those of you who don’t know, parthenogenesis is a reproductive structure whereby the female reproduces asexually, essentially producing a clone or clones of herself as offspring. It’s relatively common in fish and reptiles, but it doesn’t occur in mammals at all, let alone humans.

Except that it does!