Compiled by Athena Smith.
Articles
How Judge Reyes Became the Lorax
Molly Roberts examined litigation in the D.C. Preservation League v. Department of Interior, in which D.C. District Judge Ana C. Reyes issued a preliminary injunction preventing the National Parks Service from cutting down trees—after more than 500 were taken down—at the East Potomac Golf Links course. Roberts outlined Reyes’s frustration in potentially being misled by the government and how this fight reveals the difficult position the courts find themselves in when they are unable to trust the Department of Justice.
What’s perhaps most striking about the history of D.C. Preservation League is that Reyes indicated throughout that the government might well win. Initially, she didn’t believe there had been final agency action that even justified her involvement. She was skeptical that the government, assuming it followed all the rules, couldn’t do what it wanted with the course.
The U.S.-Taiwan ART’s Export Control Puzzle
William Yuen Yee argued that the U.S.-Taiwan Agreement on Reciprocal Trade contains a commitment to align Taiwan’s export controls with U.S. rules. Yee noted that this could be addressed if Taiwan expanded the category of items it restricts for import to mainland China or by amending export restriction on artificial intelligence (AI) chips into its Foreign Trade Act and argued that either way, the agreement’s ambiguity may benefit both parties.
Although the United States has already signed ARTs with 10 economies as of October 2026, none quite match the depth of the export control alignment commitments that Taiwan has undertaken. While the agreement states that Taiwan “shall align” its export controls with U.S. rules, what that “alignment” looks like in practice is unclear. Many in Taiwan recognize the flaws in Taiwan’s existing export control framework but differently interpret the legal commitments that Taipei must undertake to achieve alignment under the ART.
Podcasts
Lawfare Daily: Escalate to What End? Trump’s Plan for the Iran War After the Midterms:Julia Curlee sat down with Cole Bucy, Nate Swanson, and Ariane Tabatabai to discuss the Iran war eight months in, the Trump administration’s likely strategy in the Middle East after the midterms, and more.
Scaling Laws Roadshow at Univ. of Oregon: AI and State Governments with Nik Blosser:Kevin Frazier sat down with Nik Blosser to discuss Oregon’s approach to adopting and governing AI, including Oregon’s Medicaid information chatbot and its public disclosure card; Gov. Tina Kotek’s recent executive order on frontier-model procurement; the limits of state expertise and purchasing power; the AI issues likely to shape Oregon’s 2027 legislative session; and more.
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