For their generous engagement with this project, I am grateful to Aslı Bâli, Will Baude, Curt Bradley, Sam Bray, Josh Chafetz, Zach Clopton, Stephen Gardbaum, Carole Goldberg, Robert Goldstein, Jon Michaels, Kal Raustiala, Richard Re, Ryan Scoville, Shirin Sinnar, Stephen Vladeck, the editors of The University of Chicago Law Review, and participants in the Junior Faculty Federal Courts Workshop, Southern California International Law Scholars Workshop, and UCLA School of Law Summer Works-in-Progress Workshop. Andrew Brown, Nicholas Garver, Danielle Hesse, and Joshua Ostrer provided excellent research assistance.
In the US constitutional system, the executive branch generally conducts foreign relations. But in recent years, the nonexecutive branches—the judiciary and Congress—have challenged the exclusivity of the president’s authority to conduct foreign relations by opening direct channels of communication with foreign governments’ executive branches.
