The Presidency, the 2024 Campaign and the Future of American Democracy

Experience the Event

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Tuesday, October 29, 2024 12:00 pm

This matchup promises an animated debate on a range of current political, legal, and constitutional issues facing the nation yet distinctive for its civility and civil engagement of the ideas embodied in the parties’ differing perspectives.

This event is hosted by the Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government.

Speakers:

This debate features two articulate law professors and former government officials with very different political perspectives: 

• Professor John Yoo, Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, a Republican, former deputy assistant attorney general in the George W. Bush Administration, former general counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, who has served in all three branches of national government, and who is a regular commentator on FoxNews; and
• Harry Litman, senior legal affairs columnist for the Opinion page at the Los Angeles Times, a former U.S. Attorney and deputy assistant attorney general, a Democrat who advised the Kerry-Edwards campaign in 2004 and (post-election) the Obama-Biden campaign in 2008, and a regular commentator on MSNBC, CNN and CBS News.

This October 11, 2024 conversation was part of the 2024-25 Notre Dame Forum that answers the question “What Do We Owe Each Other?” For more information on the 2025-24 Notre Dame Forum Inauguration Series, please click here.

Since its establishment in 2005, each year the Notre Dame Forum invites campus-wide dialogue about issues of importance to the University, the nation, and the larger world. This year’s theme, chosen by Father Dowd, invites reflection on our responsibilities to one another. In a world where ideological and cultural divisions seem to have deepened, the Forum aims to bring people together across differences to face the most pressing challenges of our time.

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Meet the Speaker: Harry Litman

Harry Litman, the senior legal affairs columnist for the Opinion page of the Los Angeles Times, is a former U.S. attorney and deputy assistant attorney general. He is the creator and host of the “Talking Feds” podcast (@talkingfedspod) and a regular commentator on MSNBC, CNN and CBS News. He was previously a contributing columnist for the Washington Post. Litman teaches constitutional and national security law at UCLA and UC San Diego, is a senior fellow at the USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy, and maintains a small law practice specializing in the False Claims Act. He served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justices Thurgood Marshall and Anthony Kennedy. Prior to law school, Litman worked on the Associated Press’ baseball desk and as a feature film production assistant in New York City. Litman and his wife, Julie Roskies Litman, have three children.

Meet the Speaker: John Yoo

John Yoo is the Emanuel Heller Professor of Law at the University of California at Berkeley. He is also a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.  

His tenth book, Defender-in-Chief: Trump’s Fight for Presidential Power, was published by St. Martin’s Press in 2020.  Professor Yoo’s other books include Striking Power: How Cyber, Robots, and Space Weapons Change the Rules for War, Point of Attack: Preventive War, International Law, and Global Welfare, and Crisis and Command: A History of Executive Power from George Washington to George Bush.  

Professor Yoo has published more than 100 articles in academic journals on subjects including national security, constitutional law, international law, and the Supreme Court.  He also regularly contributes to the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and National Review, among others.

Professor Yoo has served in all three branches of government.  He was an official in the U.S. Department of Justice, where he worked on national security and terrorism issues after the 9/11 attacks.  He served as general counsel of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.  He has been a law clerk for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and federal appeals Judge Laurence Silberman.  He has been a visiting professor at Seoul National University in South Korea, the Interdisciplinary Center in Israel, Keio University in Japan, Trento University in Italy, the University of Chicago, and the Free University of Amsterdam.

Professor Yoo supervises the Public Law and Policy Program, the Korea Law Center, and the California Constitution Center.  He also serves on the boards of the Pacific Legal Foundation, the Federalist Society’s Separation of Powers and Federalism Division, the Universidad Cientifica del Sur Law School, and the Asia-Pacific Law Institute at Seoul National University. He is a winner of the Federalist Society’s Paul Bator award.

Professor Yoo graduated from Yale Law School and summa cum laude from Harvard College.