Scott interviews William Arkin about his recent Newsweek article discussing the the government's various contingency plans—both public and secret—to keep a functioning, constitutional government alive during a national crisis. He is not so concerned about the introduction of martial law as usually conceived, which he considers unlikely, but worries about something called devolving succession, a process by which a group outside the usual, public line of succession could declare themselves a legitimate government. One problem with this system is that these figures are essentially unknown to...