Law & Democracy: The Constitutional Operating System Under Pressure with Dakota Rudesill

In this episode of Law and Democracy, Steven Huefner, Tony Gaughan, and Terri Enns welcome Professor Dakota Rudesill (Moritz College of Law) to explore how professional communities — law, military, and intelligence — serve as critical stabilizers in the American constitutional system. They discuss the unique pressures facing these professions today, the framing and misconceptions around the “deep state,” and how historical lessons can inform the defense of democratic governance. About Dakota S. Rudesill: Professor Rudesill is a scholar, practitioner, and teacher of legislation and national security law and policy. At Moritz, he teaches National Security Law & Process, Secrecy & Surveillance, Legislation and Regulation, the Legislation Clinic, and Professional Responsibility (legal ethics). His scholarship has appeared or is forthcoming in the Georgetown Law Journal, Stanford Journal of International Law, Yale Journal of International Law, Harvard National Security Journal, Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy, and the Washington University Law Review, among others. Professor Rudesill is a member of the editorial board of the peer-review Journal of National Security Law and Policy. He has served as Chair of the National Security Section of the American Association of Law Schools (AALS). Particular areas of emphasis in Professor Rudesill’s work are intelligence and secrecy (including secret law), arms control and nuclear weapons, legislation, and the experiential “learning-by-doing” training of professionals. Professor Rudesill leads a coalition pushing for a congressional clerkship program analogous to the judiciary’s law clerk program, and is the creator and director of The Ohio State National Security Simulation. This immersive annual exercise places over 130 OSU students from law, policy, intelligence, military, communications, and business management backgrounds in their respective roles as they grapple with current national security challenges and advise top practitioners in real time over two days. Professor Rudesill has advised senior leaders in all three branches of the federal government. He served the U.S. Congress for nine years, doing national security legislative work for the Senate Budget Committee and Sen. Kent Conrad. In the Executive Branch, as a member of the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team, Professor Rudesill advised the President-Elect’s nominees for Director of National Intelligence and CIA Director. He served in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), and on the President’s Detention Policy Task Force at the U.S. Department of Justice. In the Judicial Branch, Professor Rudesill was a law clerk to James B. Loken, Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Prior to coming to Ohio State, from 2010 to 2013, Professor Rudesill was Visiting Associate Professor at Georgetown Law Center, and directed the Federal Legislation & Administrative Clinic. Earlier in his career he was a law firm associate, a Visiting Fellow at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, and was selected for the Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellowship. Professor Rudesill received his BA from St. Olaf College and JD from Yale Law School. Sources Cited: 1. Dakota Rudesill’s article in Hofstra Law Review discussing the professional tribes (law, arms, intelligence). 2. The Federalist Papers (Madison and Hamilton referenced several times). 3. Mueller Report (regarding ties to Russian intelligence and conduct during Trump's first term). 4. Samuel Huntington’s The Soldier and the State (civil-military relations theory). 5. Roman historical examples (Republic to Empire transition discussed).