The guard changes, and with it, the tweets, Jan. 8–15

Every Friday, Law Decoded delivers analysis on the week’s critical stories in the realms of policy, regulation and law.

Editor’s note

Armed National Guardsmen are building up concentric perimeters of black barricades around the U.S. Capitol and its whole neighborhood of federal buildings in preparation for the Biden inauguration and protests against it on Wednesday. Which inspires some déjà vu, whether to last week or last summer.

As much as history is said to repeat itself, the present day seems to be stuck on its own loop. Remember how last week’s Law Decoded was mostly about the handover of presidential power in the U.S.? This is also going to be about that. Apologies; I too hope that this stops dominating news.

In the same vein, today’s leading stories are going to feature a cast of characters eerily similar to last week’s. If it’s any help, their primary role in today’s plot is that they are all about to change.