Co-sponsored with the UC Berkeley School of Law
Lipman Room, 8th Floor, Barrows Hall, UC Berkeley  → map

Does the president need more power abroad and at home in the post-9/11 world, or has the president already become too dominant, overriding the constitutional separation of powers? What role should the courts, Congress, public opinion and the press play in checking presidential actions in the Iraq War and beyond in a world where the opponent in a military conflict may not be a sovereign state? What if the state of war seems likely to persist indefinitely? This conference seeks to examine these critical questions in an expansive way, drawing together scholars from a number of different subfields in political science as well as constitutional law and history.

 

Event Schedule

Continental Breakfast
8:45 am - 9:15 am

PANEL 1: War and Presidential Politics

9:15 - 10:45 a.m.

This panel examines how the president's standing with the public is affected by wartime actions. How has partisanship historically impacted evaluations of a president during wartime? Does the casualty rate reduce a president's job approval rating and reelection prospects? Does the nature of the particular war affect these outcomes?

Chair: Terri Bimes (UC Berkeley)
Panelists: Matt Baum (UCLA)
John Mueller (Ohio State University)
Adam Berinsky (MIT)
Discussant: Gary Jacobson (UC San Diego)

PANEL 2: The Imperial Presidency and the Founding

11:00 am - 12:30 pm

What kind of powers does the Constitution grant the president during times of emergencies? How did the Framers envision the legislative and judicial branches checking presidential war power?

Chair: Jesse Choper (UC Berkeley School of Law)
Panelists: John Yoo (UC Berkeley School of Law)
Jack Rakove (Stanford University)
Louis Fisher (Specialist in Constitutional Law, Law Library of the Library of Congress)
Discussant: Gordon Silverstein (UC Berkeley)

Hosted Lunch
12:30 pm - 2:00 pm
Guest Speaker: Jonathan Cohen, Director of the ABC News-Washington Post Poll (tentative)

PANEL 3: Rethinking Presidential Power in the 21st Century: A Roundtable Discussion

2:00 pm - 3:30 pm

Do conditions in the post-9/11 world mandate a change in our thinking about the proper scope of presidential action? What lessons can we apply from historical exercises of presidential power to the Iraq War?

Chair: Dan Farber (UC Berkeley School of Law)
Panelists: Stephen Skowronek (Yale University)
Philip C. Bobbitt (Columbia Law School)
William Howell (Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago)

Keynote

4:00 pm - 5:30 pm

Introduction: Christopher Edley (Dean, UC Berkeley School of Law)
Speakers: Ken Mehlman (plus other speaker to be announced)
"The View from the White House in Time of War"

Reception and Dinner
(by invitation only)
UC Berkeley International House, Homeroom, 2299 Piedmont Avenue, Berkeley   → map
6:00 - 8:30 pm

 

 

For further details about this day's events, please contact:
Dr. Terri Bimes, UC Berkeley Travers Political Science Department
bimes@berkeley.edu

 

 

Prior Events in This Series

Click here for a complete list and webcasts of prior events in the Choosing the Presidency series.