The private enforcement of public law is a central feature of the American administrative state. As various scholars have argued, the federal government depends upon private parties to enforce public laws through litigation in order to achieve the government\u2019s regulatory objectives. This scholarship has, however, largely overlooked the phenomenon of private enforcement in the national security arena. This Article seeks to describe and analyze national security\u2019s private enforcement for the first time. In doing so, it explores what national security\u2019s private enforcement reveals about the costs of private enforcement more broadly. In particular, this Article identifies an important downside to private enforcement that existing literature has largely ignored\u2014namely its potential to reinforce the state\u2019s \u201cdespotic powers\u201d and \u201cdespotic purposes.\u201d Despotic power represents the state\u2019s ability to do as it pleases without being accountable or responsive to all or certain members of society. Despotic purpose focuses on the state\u2019s pursuit of illiberal policies and practices. National security\u2019s private enforcement demonstrates how private enforcement can promote the government\u2019s despotic purposes and powers by reinforcing state policies that undermine civil liberties and target communities that are marginalized and have little say or control over the government\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n