The Franklin D. Roosevelt
Presidential Library and Museum
presents an author talk and signing
with
William R. Casto author of
ADVISING THE PRESIDENT:
ATTORNEY GENERAL
ROBERT H. JACKSON
AND FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
Wednesday, July 31, 2019 at 4:00 p.m.
Henry A. Wallace Center at the
FDR Presidential Library and Home
HYDE PARK, NY -- The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum presents an author talk and signing with
William R. Casto author of
ADVISING THE PRESIDENT: ATTORNEY GENERAL ROBERT H. JACKSON AND FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT on Wednesday, July 31, 2019 at 4:00 p.m. The program will be held in the Henry A. Wallace Center at the FDR Presidential Library and Home.
This is a free public event but registration is required.
Synopsis:
It is broadly understood that a president might test the limits of the law in extraordinary circumstances -- and does so with advice from legal counsel.
ADVISING THE PRESIDENT is an exploration of this process, viewed through the experience of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Robert H. Jackson on the eve of World War II. The book directly grapples with the ethical problems inherent in advising a president on actions of doubtful legality; eschewing partisan politics, it presents a practical, realistic model for rendering -- and judging the propriety of -- such advice.
Jackson, who would go on to be the chief US prosecutor at the Nuremberg war crimes trials, was the US solicitor general from 1938-1940, US attorney general from 1940-1941, and Supreme Court justice from 1941-1954. William R. Casto examines the legal arguments advanced by Roosevelt for controversial wartime policies such as illegal wiretapping and unlawful assistance to Great Britain, all of which were related to important issues of national security. Putting these episodes in political and legal context, Casto makes clear distinctions between what the adviser tells the president and what he tells others, including the public, and between advising the president and subsequently facilitating the president's decision.
Based upon the real-life experiences of a great attorney general advising a great president, Casto's timely work presents a pragmatic yet ethically powerful approach to giving legal counsel to a president faced with momentous, controversial decisions.
William R. Casto is Paul Whitfield Horn Professor at Texas Tech University. His many books include FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND THE CONSTITUTION IN THE AGE OF FIGHTING SAIL and THE SUPREME COURT IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC.
Please contact Cliff Laube at (845) 486-7745 with questions about the event.
