Executive Functions Chat

Jack interviews Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, the Ashton B. Carter Visiting Professor at the Harvard Kennedy School and formerly Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Deputy National Security Advisor, about her new Kennedy School report, Deterrence by Resilience: Securing the United States and Promoting Innovation in the Age of Bioconvergence. They discuss how artificial intelligence has changed the biological threat landscape since ChatGPT, the scenarios that worry her most, and the report's recommendations across prevention, detection, attribution, readiness, response, and resilience—among them a nationwide early warning system, rapid attribution, a federally chartered National Institute for Bioresilience, and an Operation Warp Speed-style partnership with industry built before the crisis rather than during it. They also take up the legislation this would require, what the frontier AI labs might make of it, and the surveillance and privacy tradeoffs the program implies.


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Jack and Bob discuss litigation over the Trump administration’s executive order on the Postal Service and election integrity, and the recent final rule that the Postal Service issued to implement the order. They explain what the Trump administration is seeking to accomplish with these maneuvers and examine the fate of two cases challenging the final rule that are pending in the District of Columbia and Massachusetts. They also analyze the practical difficulties in implementing the rule before the fall election, the role of federal criminal enforcement as a source of pressure on the states, and how the Purcell principle bears on litigation brought this close to an election.


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Bob speaks with Danielle Friedman, Legal Director of the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School, about the Initiatives’ recently published analysis of state criminal laws that could apply to potential federal government interference in the 2026 and future elections. They discuss laws, varying from state to state, that address deployment of military or other armed forces at the polls; actions to delay or disrupt the delivery of election mail, such as registration forms and ballots; and the seizure and removal of voting materials from election offices. Their discussion covers the likely federal government defenses against state criminal prosecutions of this kind.


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Jack Goldsmith interviews former Homeland Security Secretary and Pentagon General Counsel Jeh Johnson about the article he co-authored in the Journal of National Security Law and Policy, "Presidential War Powers, Executive Expansion, and Congressional Retreat." They discuss how Congress's power over war has eroded, the constitutional and practical obstacles to reasserting it, and the war in Iran as a live example.
Mentioned:
* Jeh Johnson and Ethan Klaris, Presidential War Powers: Executive Expansion and Congressional Retreat (2026)
* Cyrus Vance, Striking the Balance: Congress and the President Under the War Powers Resolution (1984)


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As the 2026 midterms approach, Jack and Bob give a big-picture overview of the Trump administration’s efforts to use federal law enforcement and executive power to influence the congressional elections. They discuss the constitutional limits on presidential authority over election rules, the administration’s novel tactics and mounting losses in court thus far, and the potential deployment of the military or ICE to the polls. They also examine the effects of the administration’s agenda on voter turnout, public confidence in the electoral process, and the risk of contested results.


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