In the wake of 9/11, the George W. Bush administration has gone to great lengths to protect the United States from terrorist attacks, instituting certain controversial policies that critics have decried as violations of domestic and international laws. From wiretapping to coercive interrogation of suspected terrorists, the administration’s actions have led some to suggest that the legislative and judicial branches should play a more prominent role in determining appropriate security measures in response to national emergencies.

In Terror in the Balance: Security, Liberty, and the Courts, authors Eric A. Posner and Adrian Vermeule argue that the legal and institutional bases of this critique are incorrect, and that courts, lawyers, and legislators are ill-equipped to second-guess security policy. At this AEI event, participants will discuss executive powers in wartime with Posner, Vermeule, and Louis Michael Seidman of Georgetown Law Center. Michael Greve, director of the Federalism Project at AEI, will moderate.