Maxwell School News and Commentary

Dimitar Gueorguiev, assistant professor of political science, and his co-authors, emphasizes the need to protect data security, provide risk disclosure to students, promote open discussion while ensuring student safety, respect instructor autonomy, and offer support and guidance to students and faculty facing repercussions for engaging in sensitive content.

"[National security] definitions are a game that all governments play. Pay attention instead to how governments treat their citizens," says William C. Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs.

While military deployment to the border by President Trump is "clearly legal," Professor of Practice William Banks questions "whether the wall construction itself is lawful."

The National Guard is trained to help domestically in a variety of capacities. "That said, they are members of the military, not law enforcement, so they are largely trained to supplement military jobs," says Professor Emeritus William Banks.

"You want to come to the aid of the states when states can’t take care of themselves," says Professor Emeritus William C. Banks, about President Trump's threat to invoke the Insurrection Act.

"At its core, this is about an aircraft carrier skipper who sees an imminent threat and is forced to make a decision that risks his career in the act of what he believes to be the safety of the near 5,000 members of his crew," says University Professor Sean O’Keefe.

Most of the time...America’s military forces have remained in the background, waiting for direction from civilian leaders to respond to crises and then only in limited ways," says William C. Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs. "That’s by design. We train soldiers to fight and win wars and deter threats overseas."

"The Insurrection Act may be invoked only following an invasion, insurrection or widespread domestic violence," says William C. Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs. "Only if states attempt to leave the Union would state defiance enable Insurrection Act authority. Otherwise the states control their citizens' health, welfare and safety."

"If martial law were invoked, the government would be conducted ad hoc by the president or a military commander based entirely on his or her opinion of what was needed to meet the emergency, unbound by any laws and with no transparency or public participation, and probably no accountability afterward," writes William C. Banks, professor emeritus of public administration and international affairs. 

Professor Emeritus William C. Banks says the changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act process in the bill would increase accountability for abuses of the system and require the FBI to disclose more information to the court.