From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, this is Free Expression with Jerry Baker.

Hello and welcome to Free Expression with me, Jerry Baker from the Wall Street Journal editorial page.

We're delighted you're listening to this podcast. If you enjoy it, please be sure to subscribe at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts,

and please be kind enough to leave us a

favourable review. Now, at the journal's editorial page, we believe strongly in free expression,

and so each week on this podcast we explore in depth and candor issues of topical interest.

We speak in depth to people who are leading figures in their field, practitioners, experts,

commentators to give us a better understanding of the major issues of our times.

This week, my guest is John U,

Constitutional Law scholar and professor of law at University of California, Berkeley.

After teaching and writing about constitutional law for several years,

John joined the administration of George W. Bush in 2001.

After the terrorist attacks of 9-11, he was a key figure in the development of a legal framework

for prosecuting

the war on terror. He helped draft one of the most consequential and controversial pieces of legal

advice in modern presidential history, the 2002 Bybee memo, justifying used by US forces of what

were called enhanced interrogation techniques for terrorist suspects. The memo, dubbed by its critics,

the torture memo, was used as a legal basis for messages such as waterboarding, sleep deprivation and other tactics that some,

including in the military itself, regarded as unacceptable and unlawful. The opinion was later rescinded,

but Professor U and others continue to defend it, saying not only was it the right constitutional

interpretation, but it was also very effective in saving lives during the war on terror.

After the Bush administration, for a year returned to academia and has authored many articles on

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