* DOJ Inspector General’s Report: “A Review of the FBI’s Investigations of Certain Domestic Advocacy Groups” (Sep. 20, 2010)
DOJ’s IG has issued a report exonerating the FBI from charges that it targeted domestic groups (and one individual) for investigation based on their First Amendment activities. (“In sum, the evidence in our review did not indicate that … the FBI targeted any of the groups for investigation on the basis of their First Amendment activities.”) The report does criticize FBI on the ground that the factual predicate for some of the investigations was weak, that some of the investigations were continued too long, that some involved indications of state rather than federal crime, that some information was retained inappropriately, and that in some instances investigations were misclassified.
Note that the report may be useful in the classroom from a case study perspective or as a primer on certain investigative predicates.
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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