Jack Goldsmith

Senior Fellow
Biography: 

Jack Goldsmith is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Henry L. Shattuck Professor of Law at Harvard University. From 2003 to 2004, he served as the assistant attorney general, Office of Legal Counsel; from 2002 to 2003 he served as the special counsel to the general counsel of the Department of Defense. Goldsmith also taught at the University of Chicago Law School from 1997 to 2002 and at the University of Virginia Law School from 1994 to 1997.

In his academic work, Goldsmith has written widely on issues related to national security law, presidential power, international law, and Internet regulation. His books include Power and Constraint: The Accountable Presidency after 9/11 (2012), The Terror Presidency: Law and Judgment inside the Bush Administration (2009), Who Controls the Internet: Illusions of a Borderless World (with Tim Wu) (2006), and The Limits of International Law (with Eric Posner) (2005). He blogs on national security matters at the Lawfare blog,and on issues of labor law and policy at the On Labor blog.

Goldsmith is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He holds a JD from Yale Law School, a BA and an MA from Oxford University, and a BA from Washington & Lee University. He clerked for Supreme Court justice Anthony M. Kennedy, Court of Appeals judge J. Harvie Wilkinson, and Judge George Aldrich on the Iran-US Claims Tribunal.

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Recent Commentary

Featured

Loyalty And Principle In The Trump White House

by Jack Goldsmithvia Lawfare
Friday, July 21, 2017

We don’t yet know why Mark Corallo, the spokesman for President Trump’s personal legal team, resigned yesterday.

Analysis and Commentary

The Trump Interview And DOJ Independence

by Jack Goldsmithvia Lawfare
Thursday, July 20, 2017

I see the implications of the Trump interview a little differently than Ben does. First, Ben says that the only honorable thing for Attorney General Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein to do in light of Trump’s intemperate attacks is to resign.

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Security by the Book - Destined For War: Can America And China Escape Thucydides's Trap?

by Jack Goldsmith, Graham Allisonvia Lawfare
Wednesday, July 12, 2017

The Hoover Institution hosted "Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides's Trap?" on Wednesday, July 12, 2017 from 5:00pm - 7:00pm EST.

Analysis and Commentary

Foreign Relations Law Supplement

by Jack Goldsmithvia Lawfare
Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Curtis Bradley and I have completed a 23-page Supplement to the new edition of our casebook, Foreign Relations Law: Cases and Materials (6th Ed. 2017). The Supplement addresses, among other things, litigation over the Trump administration’s executive orders relating to immigration, the administration’s announcement that the United States would withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement, the administration’s missile strikes against Syria in April 2017, and the debates and litigation concerning “sanctuary jurisdictions.”

Featured

What Was Most Important In Today’s Supreme Court Immigration Decision

by Jack Goldsmithvia Lawfare
Monday, June 26, 2017

Many are debating the significance of today’s Per Curiam Supreme Court opinion that granted the government’s petitions for certiorari and its stay applications in part. Did the Court signal that it would uphold most elements of the decisions below, as some argued? Did it signal the opposite—that it would reverse most elements of the appellate court rulings? 

Analysis and Commentary

If Rod Rosenstein Recuses: What Happens Next?

by Jack Goldsmith, Benjamin Wittesvia Lawfare
Friday, June 16, 2017

ABC News is reporting that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein “has privately acknowledged to colleagues that he may have to recuse himself from” his role as Acting Attorney General for the Department’s Russia Investigation. (Recall that Rosenstein assumed that role when Attorney General Sessions recused himself earlier.)

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Security by the Book - The Ideas Industry: How Pessimists, Partisans, And Plutocrats Are Transforming The Marketplace Of Ideas

by Jack Goldsmith, Daniel W. Dreznervia Lawfare
Thursday, June 15, 2017

The Hoover Institution hosted "The Ideas Industry: How Pessimists, Partisans, and Plutocrats are Transforming the Marketplace of Ideas" on Thursday, June 15, 2017 from 5:00pm - 7:00pm EST.

The White House
Analysis and Commentary

If Trump Fires Mueller (Or Orders His Firing)

by Jack Goldsmithvia Lawfare
Tuesday, June 13, 2017

There are growing indications that President Trump may be thinking about getting rid of Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Last weekend one of the President’s private lawyers would not rule out the possibility when asked. Yesterday the President’s allies started talking affirmatively about the possibility.

Featured

Two Reflections On The Comey Statement

by Jack Goldsmithvia Lawfare
Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Though I agree with much of what Ben says about James Comey’s statement, I find myself in greater agreement with David French’s account. As French concludes, “there are some elements that are good for President Trump, but overall it shows a chief executive placing improper pressure on the FBI director — pressure that no GOP politician would tolerate from a Democratic president.” I write to add two points.

Analysis and Commentary

President Trump Nominates Chris Wray For FBI Director

by Jack Goldsmithvia Lawfare
Wednesday, June 7, 2017

This morning President Trump announced that he would nominate Chris Wray as the next Director of the FBI. I worked with Wray in the Justice Department. He was the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division when I was Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel.

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