Benjamin Wittes is a senior fellow in Governance Studies at The Brookings Institution. He co-founded and is the editor-in-chief of the Lawfare blog, which is devoted to sober and serious discussion of "Hard National Security Choices," and is a member of the Hoover Institution's Task Force on National Security and Law. He is the author of Detention and Denial: The Case for Candor After Guantanamo, published in November 2011, co-editor of Constitution 3.0: Freedom and Technological Change, published in December 2011, and editor of Campaign 2012: Twelve Independent Ideas for Improving American Public Policy (Brookings Institution Press, May 2012). He is also writing a book on data and technology proliferation and their implications for security. He is the author of Law and the Long War: The Future of Justice in the Age of Terror, published in June 2008 by The Penguin Press, and the editor of the 2009 Brookings book, Legislating the War on Terror: An Agenda for Reform.
His previous books include Starr: A Reassessment, published in 2002 by Yale University Press, and Confirmation Wars: Preserving Independent Courts in Angry Times, published in 2006 by Rowman & Littlefield and the Hoover Institution.
Between 1997 and 2006, he served as an editorial writer for The Washington Post specializing in legal affairs. Before joining the editorial page staff of The Washington Post, Wittes covered the Justice Department and federal regulatory agencies as a reporter and news editor at Legal Times. His writing has also appeared in a wide range of journals and magazines including The Atlantic, Slate, The New Republic, The Wilson Quarterly, The Weekly Standard, Policy Review, and First Things.
Benjamin Wittes was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He graduated from Oberlin College in 1990, and he has a black belt in taekwondo.
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The Unitary Executive through Presidents Bush, Obama, and Trump
Fifth Annual Executive Branch Review Conference
The Mayflower Hotel1127 Connecticut Ave NW
Washington, DC 20036
Panel II: The NSA Telephone Metadata Program
The NSA, Security, Privacy, and Intelligence Symposium
Jones Day LLP51 Louisiana Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20001
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Moot CourtroomPanel One: Detention, Interrogation and Trial of Terrorist Suspects – 10 Years Later
2012 National Security Symposium
Jones Day LLP51 Louisiana Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20001
The Unitary Executive through Presidents Bush, Obama, and Trump
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The Fifth Annual Executive Branch Review Conference will examine the changing and often convoluted relationship...
The Unitary Executive through Presidents Bush, Obama, and Trump
Fifth Annual Executive Branch Review Conference
The Fifth Annual Executive Branch Review Conference will examine the changing and often convoluted relationship...
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FBI Director James Comey recently testified before Congress about what he characterized as law enforcement's...
Panel II: The NSA Telephone Metadata Program
The NSA, Security, Privacy, and Intelligence Symposium
In the 12 years since 9/11, as the national security threat matrix has become increasingly...
Panel II: The NSA Telephone Metadata Program
The NSA, Security, Privacy, and Intelligence Symposium
In the 12 years since 9/11, as the national security threat matrix has become increasingly...