Michael Ross (U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Army Reserves) has posted Governor, Don’t Fire Until You See the Whites of Their Ones and Zeros: State Authority to Wage War Against Cyber Attacks, Journal of Law & Civil Governance at Texas A&M, Vol. 2, 2026, on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
This article considers whether states have authority to respond to certain cyber attacks as an “invasion” under Article I, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution. Over the past decade, the U.S. government has shifted its primary national security focus from terrorism to strategic competition with other nation states. And cyber operations occupy a large part of that strategic competition. Although the federal government plays the leading role here, it does not have a monopoly in responding to cyber attacks. If a cyber operation crosses the threshold of an act of war, states have authority to respond with force under Article I, Section 10.
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