after the Supreme Court in Medellin v Texas invalidated President Bush's February 2005 order directing courts in Texas and other states to comply with the ICJ's 2004 order in Case Concerning Avena and Other Mexican Nationals that the United States review the convictions and death sentences of a group of Mexican nationals who had not been notified of their right to consular access under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. He later testified before Congress in support of legislation that would allow federal courts to review the death sentences of foreign nationals who had not been notified of their rights to consular access. During his term as Legal Adviser Bellinger initiated a bi-annual dialogue on international law between the State Department Legal Adviser and his/her EU foreign ministry counterparts which continued after his tenure. Bellinger's term as Legal Adviser ended on January 20, 2009. The then-Principal Deputy Legal Adviser, Joan Donoghue, served in an acting capacity until the Obama Administration's nominee, Harold Koh, was confirmed as Legal Adviser by the U.S. Senate in March 2009. Post-government service In 2009, after leaving the State Department, Bellinger joined the Washington, DC law firm of Arnold & Porter where he is a partner in the firm's public international law and national security law practices. He is also an Adjunct Senior Fellow in International and National Security Law at the Council on Foreign Relations, where he directed a program on international justice. He speaks and writes regularly on international law issues. He is a senior contributor to Lawfare, a national security law blog. In 2010, Bellinger publicly defended Obama administration officials who had been criticized for previously representing detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Bellinger was critical of the Obama administration's heavy reliance on drone strikes to kill terrorists. In testimony before Congress in 2012, he urged the Obama administration to do more to explain the legality of targeted killings and to make its drone program more transparent. In 2013, Bellinger was a signatory to an amicus curiae brief submitted to the Supreme Court by a group of former Republican officials in support of same-sex marriage in Hollingsworth v. Perry. In 2016 Bellinger drafted the "50 G.O.P. Officials Warn Donald Trump Would Put Nation's Security 'at Risk'" letter. In November 2018, Bellinger joined a group formed by George Conway, "Checks and Balances," composed of more than a dozen members of the conservative-libertarian Federalist Society, which had