On Tuesday, December 5, a collection of scholars and both current and former senior government officials are convening for a day in Washington to discuss Modern Executive Power and Sources of Constraint. The occasion is the New York University Law School’s second annual Sidley Austin Forum. Devoted each year to a topic of central importance in political or policy, the 2017 Forum will explore the presidency in our time. The speakers and panels will offer a wide range of views on topics in the field of presidential authority and its limits.
NYU Dean Trevor Morrison will moderate the first panel on The Executive: Norms, Powers, that will open with a presentation from Stanford Law Professor Michael McConnell, who is writing a book entitled The President Who Would Not Be King. The panelists for the discussion to follow will be Gene Healy of the Cato Institute, Eric Posner of the University of Chicago and Daphna Renan of Harvard Law.
NYU’s Sally Katzen, formerly Administrator, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget for President Bill Clinton, will moderate a panel on the Administrative State with Naomi Rao, Administrator of the Officer of Information and Regulatory Affairs and Michael Fitzpatrick, formerly Associate Administrator of OIRA in the Obama Administration.
On a panel moderated by Sidley’s Michael Borden, Michael McCurry, former press secretary to President Bill Clinton, will discuss the President and the Press with Douglas Heye, former Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.
NYU’s Rick Pildes will moderate a panel on National Security with Georgetown University Law’s Mary DeRosa, former Legal Adviser to the National Security Adviser and Deputy White House Counsel, and NYU’s Lisa Monaco, formerly Homeland Security Advisor to President Obama, in the Obama Administration.
I will be moderating a panel on the President’s Chiefs of Staffs with Ken Duberstein, President Reagan’s COS, and Pete Rouse, who served in that role for President Obama.
A.B. Culvahouse and Kathy Ruemmler will discuss their experiences as the president’s White House Counsel, on a panel on the President and His or Her Lawyers moderated by Sidley’s Kwaku Akowuah,
The Forum, which is open to the public, will take place at NYU’s Constance Milstein and Family Global Academic Center at 1307 L Street NW.
The details are available here, including the full schedule and information about registration.