Lawfare's weekly roundup covered a range of legal and policy disputes, including the CNN v. Trump press-pool case, the twin Harvard cases over grants and visas, and the FTC's campaign against NewsGuard. In the Harvard cases, the discussion highlighted Paul Clement's forceful First Amendment argument.
On economic statecraft, the group discussed the U.S. government's expanded use of tariffs, sanctions, export controls, and investment screening, with some describing it as a new "command economy." Scott Anderson detailed the Trump administration's decision to waive sanctions on Russian diesel fuel, concluding that the deal is unlikely to deliver lower prices and that its most serious consequences will be felt in Ukraine.
Technology policy also featured prominently. Anthropic has requested an en banc hearing after the Defense Department designated the company a supply chain risk for refusing to drop conditions on mass surveillance and fully automated weapons. Separately, Adam Conner wrote that President Trump's June 2026 Executive Order 14409 on AI raises many questions about the text of its framework.