September 19, 2008
Co-sponsored with the UC Berkeley School of Law
Lipman Room, 8th Floor, Barrows Hall, UC Berkeley → map
This event is free and open to the public.
By bringing together former government officials, leading legal scholars and political scientists with a range of backgrounds and perspectives, this conference hopes to present a systematic, balanced analysis of the proper place of the president in the political system. The conference itself will examine what role the courts, Congress, and the public have played in checking presidential actions historically, and what role they should play in the Iraq War and beyond in a world where the opponent in a military conflict may not be a sovereign state. We plan to move the debate over presidential power well beyond the conventional discussion of whether we have an "imperial presidency." The conference will include three panels, a luncheon speaker, and a keynote panel.
Ronald Reagan, 1983
Photo/Reagan Presidential Library, Simi Valley, CA
Event Schedule
Breakfast
Continental Breakfast
and welcoming remarks
8:45 am - 9:15 am
PANEL 1: War and Presidential Politics
9:15 - 10:45 a.m.
Chair: Terri Bimes (Senior Lecturer in Political Science, UC Berkeley)
Panelists: Matthew Baum (Marvin Kalb Professor of Global Communications and Professor of Public Policy, Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government)
Adam Berinsky (Associate Professor of Political Science, MIT)
John Mueller (Woody Hayes Chair of National Security Studies, Mershon Center, Professor of Political Science, Ohio State University)
Discussant: Gary Jacobson (Professor of Political Science, UC San Diego)
PANEL 2: The Imperial Presidency and the Founding
11:00 am - 12:30 pm
Chair: Jesse Choper (Earl Warren Professor of Public Law, UC Berkeley School of Law)
Panelists: Louis Fisher (Specialist in Constitutional Law, Law Library of the Library of Congress)
Jack Rakove (W. R. Coe Professor of History and American Studies and Professor of Political Science, Stanford University)
John Yoo (Professor of Law, UC Berkeley School of Law)
Discussant: Gordon Silverstein (Assistant Professor of Political Science, UC Berkeley)
Luncheon Speaker
Hosted Lunch12:30 pm - 2:00 pm
Guest Speaker: Jon Cohen (Director of Polling, Washington Post)
"War and Terrorism as Issues in the 2008 Election"
PANEL 3: Rethinking Presidential Power in the 21st Century: A Roundtable Discussion
2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
Chair: Daniel Farber (Sho Sato Professor of Law, UC Berkeley School of Law)
Panelists: Philip Bobbitt (Herbert Wechsler Professor of Jurisprudence, Columbia Law School)
William Howell (Associate Professor of Public Policy, University of Chicago, Harris School of Public Policy)
Stephen Krasner (Graham H. Stuart Professor of International Relations, Stanford University)
Stephen Skowronek (Pelatiah Perit Professor of Political and Social Science, Yale University)
Keynote Address
4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
“The View from the White House in Time of War”
Introduction: Christopher Edley (The Honorable William H. Orrick Jr. Distinguished Chair and Dean, UC Berkeley School of Law)
Ken Mehlman
John Podesta
Speakers:
Ken Mehlman (Managing Director & Head of Global Public Affairs, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.; former White House Director of Public Affairs, 2001-2004, and Chair of the Republican National Committee, 2005-2007)
John Podesta (President and CEO, Center for American Progress and former Chief of Staff to the President, 1998-2001)
Reception and Dinner
(by invitation only)UC Berkeley International House, Homeroom
2299 Piedmont Avenue, 2nd Floor, Berkeley, CA → map
6:00 - 8:30 pm
George Herbert Walker Bush, 1991
Photo/Bush Presidential Library, Texas A&M
For further details about this day's events, please contact:
Marc Levin
Assistant Director, Institute of Governmental Studies
marcl@berkeley.edu
Jimmy Carter, 1978
Photo/Carter Presidential Library, Atlanta
Prior Events in The Choosing the President 2008 Series
Click here for a complete list of prior events in the Choosing the Presidency series, as well as links to webcasts.