WarCriminalsWatch Events

"4:30pm Panel Discussion: Confronting Terror: 9/11 and the Future of American National Security
Join our distinguished panel to discuss this topic from a variety of viewpoints presented in the book, Confronting Terror, edited by John Yoo, Professor of Law at University of California, Berkeley and a leading initial architect of post-9/11 national security policy, and Dean Reuter, Vice President & Director of Practice Groups for the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy.

*Books available for purchase and autographs at the event.

Moderator:
Hon. Frank Easterbrook, Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

Panelists:
Hon. Bob Barr, Former Congressman, 7th Dist. GA, 2008 Libertarian Candidate for President of the United States, and member of The Constitution Project’s Liberty and Security Committee
Arthur Herman, Visiting Scholar, American Enterprise Institute
Charles Kesler, Senior Fellow, Claremont Institute
Hon. Richard A. Posner, Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit

5:30 – 6:30pm:  Reception and Book Signing

6:30pm Debate: "Resolved: That the President's War Powers are (Nearly) Absolute"
Co-sponsored by The Jack Miller Center for Teaching American Founding Principles and History, the American Constitutional Society, The Constitution Project, DePaul University College of Law, and Ricochet.

To Propose: John Yoo -- Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley School of Law, and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, U.S. Department of Justice
To Oppose: Alberto Coll -- Professor of Law, DePaul University College of Law, former Principal Deputy Secretary of Defense for Low Intensity Conflict and former Dean of Strategy, U.S. Naval War College
Moderator: James Warren -- Columnist, The Atlantic and former reporter and editor for the Chicago Tribune

While serving as Deputy Assistant Attorney General after 9/11, and in his many articles and books before and since then, John Yoo has articulated a sweeping theory of executive power, predicated on a notion of a "unitary executive," the writings of the framers of the Constitution, the wording of the Constitution itself, and the historic exercise of presidential war powers, to assert that the president's power to wage war is all but absolute, subject only to certain political checks, and that it includes the power to commit the country to lengthy battle without Congress' approval, detain combatants in secret captivity, interrogate them according to harsh terms, try and convict them, and eavesdrop on US citizen's communications without a warrant. 

Professor Coll asserts that while the president's war powers are broad, they are not wholly exempt from the legislative actions of Congress, the reach of the Judiciary, the protections afforded by the Bill of Rights, or the reach of international law within its place in the U.S. constitutional framework.  Both of these former officials appeal to an original understanding of the Constitution and the American Founding to make their case. 

Join us as Professors Yoo and Coll debate these issues, which remain relevant not only to the war against terrorists, but to on-going US and NATO action in Libya and in future conflicts as they arise.  Audience members may question the debaters at the conclusion of the debate."

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