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SAN MATEO — The San Mateo Rotary Club has invited controversial former Bush administration lawyer John Yoo for a talk Thursday on executive power throughout U.S. history.

Yoo — who teaches at UC Berkeley — has written a new book on the subject, titled "Crisis and Command."

Yoo has come under intense criticism for his expansive views of executive power. The legal opinions he authored from 2001 to 2003 during a stint with the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department to Justice helped provide justification for "enhanced interrogation techniques" such as waterboarding and exempting terrorist suspects from rights and protections afforded prisoners of war.

UC Berkeley students and activists have called on the law school to dismiss Yoo, and the school does not list the location of his classes on its Web site for fear that protestors will disrupt them or attempt to intimidate Yoo or his students.

Rotary Club member Chuck Cattano said that, regardless of one's political views, the debates over executive power and the fight against terrorism are fascinating subjects.

"John Yoo has an interesting story and has been a central figure in how the (United States) prosecutes enemy combatants, defines them, and defines the executive branch during wartime," Cattano said in an e-mail.

Thursday's program takes place from noon to 1:30 p.m. at the Poplar Creek Golf Course. The event is not open to the public, except for those who are guests of Rotary members.