60-day extension for sunsetting PATRIOT Act provisions; passing the 800 member mark

1. 60 day extension on the way for expiring PATRIOT Act provisions

A quick note on the PATRIOT Act provisions that were set to expire this month.  Apparently Congress is punting the issue until after the holidays, as there is a 60-day extension for these authorities in the Defense Appropriations bill that appears set to become law in the near future.  The PATRIOT debate accordingly will resume in early 2010…

2. 800 members and counting…

I was pleased to note yesterday that this listserv now has exactly 800 members, which is its high water mark.  The list has been around since about 2003, and has grown steadily, especially this year.  Feel free to encourage others to sign up!  Who knows, maybe there will be more than a 1000 of us by this time next year…

By Robert M. Chesney

Robert M. Chesney is Charles I. Francis Professor in Law at UT-Austin School of Law. Chesney is a national security law specialist, with a particular interest in problems associated with terrorism. Professor Chesney recently served in the Justice Department in connection with the Detainee Policy Task Force created by Executive Order 13493. He is a member of the Advisory Committee of the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Law and National Security, a senior editor for the Journal of National Security Law & Policy, an associate member of the Intelligence Science Board, a non-resident senior fellow of the Brookings Institution, a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a member of the American Law Institute. Professor Chesney has published extensively on topics ranging from detention and prosecution in the counterterrorism context to the states secrets privilege. He served previously as chair of the Section on National Security Law of the Association of American Law Schools and as editor of the National Security Law Report (published by the American Bar Association's Standing Committee on Law and National Security). His upcoming projects include two books under contract with Oxford University Press, one concerning the evolution of detention law and policy and the other examining the judicial role in national security affairs.

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