John Yoo -- who spearheaded the Bush administration's legal response to the 2001 terrorist attacks -- and other constitutional scholars will debate the National Security Agency's surveillance program, warrantless phone wiretapping and the war on terror at UC Davis March 9.

The event, titled "Katz v. U.S: 40 Years Later -- From Warrantless Wiretaps to the War on Terror," will focus on how the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark "search and seizure" decision in Katz applies in a modern age of global terrorism.

The UC Davis Law Review and the School of Law will host the free, public event. The program runs from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Wilkins Moot Court Room of King Hall on the UC Davis campus.

"The issue of warrantless wiretaps and personal privacy has resurfaced from under the current NSA surveillance program," said David Richardson, editor-in-chief of the law review. "This symposium will allow some of the greatest legal minds in the country to discuss both sides of this controversy."

Jennifer Chacon, a UC Davis professor of law and faculty adviser to the event, said, "Growing concerns over crime and terrorism in the United States have sparked a national conversation about the trade-offs between individual privacy and security."

"Read against a modern backdrop," she added, "the case of Katz v. United States provides an ideal framework for discussing privacy expectations, effective law enforcement and anti-terrorism strategies."

In Katz, the court ruled that the Fourth Amendment protects "people, not places" and provides protection of a "reasonable expectation of privacy," effectively curtailing the use of warrantless wiretaps by law enforcement agencies.

John Yoo, now a UC Berkeley law professor, and Glenn Sulmasy of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, will co-present a paper questioning the viability of Katz in the war on terror in a session at 2:45 p.m. Yoo served as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice from 2001 to 2003.

Sessions are as follows: "Katz in Context: Privacy, Policing Homosexuality and Enforcing Social Norms," 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.; "Katz: Rights and Remedies," 12:45 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.; "Katz in the Age of International Crime and Terrorism," 2:45 p.m. to 4:15 p.m.; and closing remarks, 4:15 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Celebrating its 40th anniversary, the law review ranks in the top 50 most cited legal periodicals in the United States. Each year it hosts a symposium on current legal topics.

For more information, please visit http://lawreview.law.ucdavis.edu/2007symposium/.