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JY

John Yoo

John Yoo is the Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, and the co-host of Ricochet’s Law Talk podcast. He likes playing squash and eating at McDonald’s.

Series

3 Whisky Happy Hour55 episodesBeyond the Polls with Henry Olsen1 episodeConservative Crossroads with Henry Olsen1 episodeFederalist Radio Hour1 episodeGray Matters1 episodeThe Ricochet Podcast35 episodesWhat the Hell Is Going On2 episodes

Recent Episodes

Conservative Crossroads with Henry Olsen
Conservative Crossroads with Henry Olsen

Debating the Unitary Executive

Does the president have the sole and unitary authority to wield all tasks inside to the executive branch by the Constitution? Here to talk about this important topic are two excellent scholars and thinkers. John Yoo, the Emanuel Heller Professor of Law at UC Berkeley and perhaps the man who is most known for reviving this theory, and George F. Will, perhaps our nation's most eminent political thinker and columnist (The Washington Post and Newsweek) for many decades. You can also watch this episode on YouTube.
Host:
Henry Olsen
Organization
Ethics and Public Policy Center

November 2025

What the Hell Is Going On
What the Hell Is Going On

WTH Is it: Insubordination or Sedition? John Yoo Explains.

Between the pardoned turkeys and those running loose on Capitol Hill, controversy over insubordination and sedition seem to be on the menu this holiday. The six Democrats who posted a video addressed to service members sowed chaos and confusion about the proper chain of command and lawful military orders. It is crucial to understand the constitutional framework that distinguish lawful military action, legislative and executive powers, crime, and war. In today’s politics, rhetoric can make it difficult to discern the line between war and crime. John Yoo reminds us that not everything that harms society constitutes a war or justifies the use of military tools. That being said, where is the line drawn, and who draws it? And what is the proper role for members of Congress? John Yoo is a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, the Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin.
Hosts:
Danielle PletkaMarc Thiessen
Organization
American Enterprise Institute

September 2025

The Ricochet Podcast
The Ricochet Podcast

The Prince of Peace

The executive branch's ambitious prosecutors have made first strikes against familiar, yet evasive, foes. That means it's time to bring back John Yoo — legal scholar, gastronome, Eagles fan — to parse through the Comey indictment, jurisprudence regarding domestic terror, and the legitimation of using military force against Venezuelan drug runners. Plus, Steve, Charlie, and James nod along to Trump's riff at the U.N. General Assembly but remain wary of the big warning against a common pain reliever. Sound clip from this week's open: President Trump goes off script at the U.N. Please visit this week's sponsors! Cozy Earth: Go to cozyearth.com/RICOCHET for up to 40% off your new favorite pajama set and blanket! Prize Picks: Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/RICOCHET and use code RICOCHET and get $50 in lineups when you play your first $5 lineup!
Hosts:
Charles C. W. CookeJames LileksSteve Hayward
Organization
Ricochet

February 2025

Beyond the Polls with Henry Olsen
Beyond the Polls with Henry Olsen

The Energetic Executive with John Yoo

Despite the kerfuffle that President Trump is initiating a Constitutional crisis, the confusion and frustration surrounding his executive actions fit within a fairly common modern trend: Congress’s institutional inaction leaves a power vacuum which the president sets out to fill. In anticipation of the Supreme Court weighing in, Henry sits down with the inestimable John Yoo to discuss the larger constitutional questions that Trump’s test cases are likely to settle. Tune in for a refresher on the distinction between the separation of powers and checks and balances; an explanation of the unitary executive theory; and considerations on how justices may come down on the decisions that will be put before them.
Host:
Henry Olsen
Organization
Ricochet

December 2024

The Ricochet Podcast
The Ricochet Podcast

Pardon Yoo!

John Yoo returns to discuss a lotta legal stuff this week. He talks presidential pardons, Daniel Penny, United States v. Skrmetti and the murder of UnitedHealth's CEO in Midtown Manhattan. Plus, after an extra-long Thanksgiving season hiatus, the boys are back with much to be grateful for. Sound from today's open: Chris Wallace predicted Hunter pardon on June 10; Ted Cruz reacts on NewsMax and Joe says Goodbye, Angola
Hosts:
Charles C. W. CookeJames LileksPeter Robinson
Organization
Ricochet

June 2024

The Ricochet Podcast
The Ricochet Podcast

Debates and Decisions

Whoever decided to place a presidential debate smack dab in the middle of the Supreme Court's decision calendar was either crazy or a genius. It not only gives us plenty to talk about but it gives a certain podcaster the rare opportunity to praise Donald Trump (Yes, really.) The Powerline men, John Yoo and Steve Hayward join Rob and Peter to review the debate and parse the thinking of the high court.
Hosts:
Peter RobinsonRob LongSteve Hayward
Organization
Ricochet

May 2024

The Ricochet Podcast
The Ricochet Podcast

Lessons in Discretion with Professor Yoo

John Yoo returns to the Ricochet Podcast, joining James and Rob for a discussion on prosecutorial overreach. The gang cover the unprecedented lawfare being waged against a former president, and consider the executive statesmanship that's kept the lawyers in check over our history. Plus there's some discussion of Biden's move to withhold congressionally approved arms to an ally at war; and, naturally, John has a few things to say about porkchops, bacon and Texan barbeque. - This week’s sound: Donald Trump comments from outside the NYC courtroom and Joe Biden reads the stage directions from the teleprompter.
Hosts:
James LileksRob Long
Organization
Ricochet

March 2024

The Ricochet Podcast
The Ricochet Podcast

Drunken Monkey Business

This week the Three Whiskey Happy Hour gang join James for a riotous good time, even as discuss and debate their beloved nation's precarious situation. They cover Joe Biden's visit to the border, Donald Trump's appeals to the Supreme Court, the latest on the war in Gaza, and a silly journalist's constitutional illiteracy. Plus there are whiskey recommendations and a must-hear story about apish antics on the high seas. And if you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe to the Three Whiskey Happy Hour podcast! - Soundbite from this week: dueling press conferences in Texas between the current and previous occupant of the Oval Office.
Host:
James Lileks
Organization
Ricochet

December 2023

3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

The Three Whisky Happy Hour: Gala New Year’s Edition

Who needs a rockin' new year's party when you have the Three Whisky Happy Hour in peak form, dishing out on the top stories of 2023, and, in the spirit of the late financial analyst Byron Wein, offering a range of potential low-probability surprises (rather than firm predictions) for 2024. What's the difference between a prediction and a surprise? Well think about it this way: who would have predicted, at year end 2022, that right now our favorite Democratic Senator would be . . . John Fetterman? Black swans everywhere are saying, "I did NOT see that coming!" But before getting started with your 2024 Bingo card we take note of the dumbest controversy of the week, which is seeing some conservatives upset at the “Conservative Dad’s Real Women of America” 2024 calendar, which features fetching photos of leading conservative heroines such as Riley Gaines in fashionable attire. Like bikinis.
Host:
Steve Hayward
Organization
Ricochet

September 2023

3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

The Three Whisky Happy Hour: Phila-Pest Edition

Settle in with your best chilled Hungarian dessert wine and Philly cheese steak for this cosmopolitan issue, which finds John Yoo—host for this week's episode—tired out from looting in his home town of Philadelphia, while Lucretia and Steve are together in Budapest carrying on with more conspiracies against the international rules-based order. John gives us on-scene reports from ground-zero of the "recreational shopping" going on in Philadelphia, plus an update on his three days of testimony in the incredible John Eastman disbarrment trial going on in California. We also cover the aftermath of our event with Heather Mac Donald at Berkeley Law, which made it all the way to Jesse Watter's show on Fox News, and has gained something like 3 million views online. But that's nothing compared to our beat down on the implosion of Ibram X. Kendi (Sen. John Kennedy's favorite "butthole professor"), which was not only predictable, but was predicted! By Glenn Loury, among others, whose profanity-laced rant about Kendi to John McWhorter we excerpt here for its news value, but also underscore the main point that the academic exaltation of an intellectual fraud like Kendi is another indication of the corruption and deep politicization of our universities today. Government shutdown? GOP debate? The rest of the Supreme Court docket for the new term beginning Monday. Yes—we cover all that too. Better get a second bottle of Hungarian wine.
Host:
Steve Hayward
Organization
Ricochet
3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

The Three Whisky Happy Hour: Saving Our Gerontocracy

Never mind saving “our democracy"—who's going to save our gerontocracy! With Mitch McConnell and Joe Biden in a contest for Greatest Brain Freeze Moment, while Dianne Feinstein and John Fetterman look on with envy, we are starting to long for the good old days of the youthful vigor of the Soviet Politburo. Is it time for age limits for high federal office (though Sen. Chuck Grassley, still firing on all cylinders two weeks before his 90th birthday, might want a word with us), or do we just need cognitive tests for office? Equally alarming is how the Baude-Paulson argument for disqualiftying Trump for the presidency under the 14th Amendment is gaining traction. Could a county registrar of voters in some deep blue percinct throw the 2024 election into complete chaos? John has a good article on this scene suggesting the answer is a hard No, which we review. Meanwhile, the whole Georgia case gets curiouser and curiouser, as you'd expect in our current Alice in Wonderland world of "verdict first, trial later" phase of Trump-specific law enforcement. But also some good news: the forces of decency are fighting back against the left's demagogic attack on Clarence Thomas.
Host:
Steve Hayward
Organization
Ricochet

August 2023

The Ricochet Podcast
The Ricochet Podcast

A Sparking Powerline

We've got a crossover episode, folks! Our friends of the Three Whiskey Happy Hour podcast (Steve Hayward, "Lucretia" and John Yoo) join to talk about the wacky legal matters of our time. There are environmentalists claiming the positive right to enjoy cooperative weather; they discuss the plush and cozy Hunter Biden tier of criminal justice compared to the briar patch tier that The Donald's living in; James dishes out some, ahem, tough love to the yutes; plus our guests pick the word that annoys them most these days. Song of the Week: Sound clip Fani Willis, Donald Trump and Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) on the indictments (Kennedy courtesy Hugh Hewitt Show)
Host:
James Lileks
Organization
Ricochet

July 2023

3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

The (Uncensorable) Three Whisky Happy Hour: Still Loitering at the Courthouse

You've heard of the Avengers. And the Incredibles. We at the 3WHH consider ourselves The Uncensorables. (Only because Justice League is taken.) In any case, just when you thought it was safe to pass by the courthouse and law library because the Supreme Court term has finished, along comes a bracing district court opinion slapping the Biden Administration hard for its collaborating with social media companies to censor COVID dissenters who turned out to be right about nearly everything. We also work through the aftermath of the Harvard/UNC decision, which is forcing the left to transfer their hated for Citizens United to this case. And what's up with the left's complaint that the 303 Creative case was a phony case? What's phony is the left's argument, which John Yoo (this week's show host) dispatches with ease, while Steve reminds us that the left has been contriving phony cases for decades. Finally, since it was Fourth of July week, we reflect on the holiday this year, Steve gives a foerboding prediction for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration in 2026, and we offer up recommendations for the best books about the Declaration for our slowly developing reading list of essential whisky-wisdom pairings.
Host:
Steve Hayward
Organization
Ricochet

June 2023

The Ricochet Podcast
The Ricochet Podcast

The Democrats-Only Love Motel

Conservatives are set to celebrate another year of invigorating Supreme Court decisions. Ricochet's old pal "Two-Shoes" John Yoo even goes so far as to suggest that America can finally get back to business—just in time for the Fourth of July. He and the gang go through the big ones of this session: Race-based affirmative action, religious freedom for both practice thereof and freedom of speech; then on to student loan 'forgiveness', gerrymandering and more. The boys also discuss foreign fires, fireworks and drafting with ChatGPT. This week’s opening clip: Donna Brazile has a meltdown on ABCNews.
Hosts:
James LileksPeter RobinsonRob Long
Organization
Ricochet
3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

The Three Whisky Happy Hour: Bringing the Smoke and Fire (Brimstone to Come)

Who needs Steve's peaty, smoky whisky this week when Canada is supplying a surplus for half the nation? (But it ain't Canadian Club they're serving.) After clearing the smoke from our eyes—and our whisky glasses, we get down to business on what is known so far about the Trump indictment (we recorded before the full details of the indictment were released), and wonder of the Dept. of Justice isn't blowing a lot of smoke. And just how did the Supreme Court manage to botch the Voting Rights Act case? Finally, we begin rolling out our listener-requested Essential Reading List, starting with a couple titles for the category of philosophy. Naturally Steve and Lucretia divide on a title to recommend. Next week we'll either do history or biography, which are also difficult categories, but that's part of the fun.
Host:
Steve Hayward
Organization
Ricochet

May 2023

3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

The Three Whisky Happy Hour: Supreme Court Touchdowns

It's late in the 4th quarter for this year's Supreme Court season, and the Justices are starting to score with some long bombs. Our 3WHH bartenders celebrated with entire flights of whisky (our kind of diversity!) while pondering Thursday's clean sweep of two 9 - 0 decisions that reinvigorate the "takings clause" of the 5th Amendment, and clip the wings of the EPA without once mentioning either the Chevron doctrine, or a certain other statute that is banned from this podcast. But wait! There's more! We also dispatch with prejudice the crazy idea of President Biden using the 14th Amendment to raise the debt ceiling, preview a couple of brand new cases that may start to undo the DEI regime, and puzzle over a head-scratching case from a few weeks ago involving California's extra-territorial imposition of regulations of pig-farming. As this poses an existential threat both to the availability of bacon supplies and McRibbs in California going forward, this is a matter of deep concern and outrage.
Host:
Steve Hayward
Organization
Ricochet
3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

The Three Whisky Happy Hour: The Lowdown on RFK Jr with KJT

With Steve Hayward back in the host chair this week, the 3WHH actually breaks some real news with special guest Kelly Janes Torrance, the op-ed editor of the indispensible New York Post. This week Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is attracting surprising interest from many conservatives, visited the Post for a grilling from the Post's editorial board, and Kelly Jane opened up her reporter's notebook to share previously unreported statements RFK Jr offered at their 90-minute meeting. You won't want to miss her scoops shared exclusively with the 3WHH podcast. John Yoo was late joining us—apparently he got stuck in an extra long McDonald's drive-through line right before show time—but did manage to break down the Durham report, and also gets in on the sequels with Kelly Jane, who has a lot of thoughts on the Ukraine situation from her experiences as an election watcher in recent years. Since KJT is Canadian, we decided to honor her guest turn with exit music from the Barenaked Ladies, "New Kid on the Block," since we're definitely going to have her back on 3WHH. As mentioned early in this episode, she may not be a neat whisky drinker, but she has an epic cocktail game. We're got a short pre-roll excerpt from John on the Ricochet podcast that we think is appropriate to share with our listeners, though I think Rob Long was not amused!
Host:
Steve Hayward
Organization
Ricochet
The Ricochet Podcast
The Ricochet Podcast

In Need of an Unbiased Machine

The gang cover so much ground this week, ChatGPT would have a hard time putting together a description! Our first guest is North Dakota's senior Senator John Hoeven. He describes his recent trip to the border, weighs in on collapsing banks, and assess the upcoming primary for the Grand Ole Party. Next John Yoo stops by on his way to McDonalds to explain the scandal laid out in the Durham Report. The hosts also get into actual reefer madness, creative AI and the pickup scene on the screenwriter’s picket line. Song of the Week: Soundbite is from Ted Cruz's comments at the border.
Hosts:
Peter RobinsonRob LongSteve Hayward
Organization
Ricochet

April 2023

3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

The Three Whisky Happy Hour: The Devil and Miss Lucretia?

In what may be the most wide-ranging episode of the 3WHH yet, the troika ranges from the implications of the Fox News settlement with Dominion for the defective NY Times v. Sullivan doctrine (and the old article that prompted Steve's story of being threatened once with a libel suit is here), to an extended discussion of the natural law arguments on abortion—the topic aborted last week for lack of time—and lastly to a look at notable political movies with the unlikely offering from Lucretia that an underrated moral-political movie worthy of note is . . . The Devil in Miss Jones??!! Needless to say John and Steve didn't see that coming, and didn't know quite what to say. And this doesn't include our new segment, "Lucretia's Featured Rant of the Week," which debuted with a much deserved blast at the Department of Justice. Steve gets his revenge at the very end, with exit music drawn from his favorite recent political movie that John and Lucretia have embargoed from further mention on the 3WHH (but if you're curious you can read about it here and here.)
Host:
Steve Hayward
Organization
Ricochet
3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

The Three Whisky Happy Hour: No Leaking Here

Lucretia hosts the bar this week, as Steve and John extol the virtues of Japanese whisky while trolling the left for its latest futile attempt to take down Justice Clarence Thomas. Lucretia celebrates a brew pub in Arizona that stood up to the braying mob that resents real beer drinkers who like the Federalist Society, which deserves to go with a lighter highland malt. And in our "This Week in Democrats" segment, which pairs well with a dusty, peaty whisky, we wonder why the left is suddenly trying to push out Dianne Feinstein, and the problem this creates for Gov. Winsome Newsom, among other amusements and free entertainment Democrats provided this week. John then walks us through the puzzles of the fast-moving case involving the revocation (stayed for the moment) of the aboritificent drug mifepristone, which turns quickly to a too-brief discussion of natural law and abortion, and why, to borrow once again Stan Evans's great line now more applicable than ever, it is a good thing Republicans are pro-life, since they spend so much time in the fetal position, unable to offer even the simplest public argument for their stance on the issue. (To be continued. . .) Finally, Steve and Lucretia wonder why the leak of classified documents showing that the situation in Ukraine is very different from what we've been told (some people might call the party line a "lie," but that's just some people) isn't seen as the equivalent of the Pentagon Papers and Vietnam. Instead, we're being treated to a spectacle of government secrets unveiled by the cast of High School Musical: Gamer Sequel.
Host:
Steve Hayward
Organization
Ricochet
3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

The Three Whisky Happy Hour: Israel’s Judicial Coup?

Lot going on this week, including Steve successfully completing his mandatory online "Abusive Conduct Training," otherwise known as Lucretia's How-To Guide to Blunt Speaking. Did you know abusive conduct is bad? How would we have known without an online training module? The good news for Lucretia is that "making unpopular statements about controversial issues" is not considered abusive. The bad news is that "making egregious statements about a person's lifestyle" is considered abusive, so we have to stop ragging on John for his McRibb fixation. The main subject this week is the turmoil in Israel about proposed reforms to its judiciary. Somehow this is an international story, as it involves possible interference from the United States, and with might be called the Internationale of the Administrative State. Did you know Israel doesn't have a written constitution? This is a large part of the problem. While the judicial reform package Netanyahu's government put forward may have some defects, its defeat—and defeat is what has occurred, make no mistake—is a loss for the cause of constitutional government everywhere. We also get in some observations about Trump's indictment, the Nashville shooting, the proposed Census question about whether someone is a descendant of slaves, and a new feature: Lucretia's Stupid Person of the Week.
Host:
Steve Hayward
Organization
Ricochet

March 2023

The Ricochet Podcast
The Ricochet Podcast

Courting Trouble

This one's gonna be tough to beat! We've got a Tom Wolfe novel playing out in real time. From a corrupt DA to a presidential scandal involving an adult film star. Plus we've got fan-favorite John Yoo! Need we say more? There's some more AI chatter; and Peter's ticker is finally working right! Song of the week: Lawyers, Guns and Money by Warren Zevon (Opening sound this week is former Vice President Mike Pence at the National Review Institute’s 2023 Ideas Summit courtesy of C-SPAN.)
Hosts:
James LileksPeter RobinsonRob Long
Organization
Ricochet
3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

The Three Whisky Happy Hour: Alvin (Bragg) and the Chipmunks

We're a day late getting to the whisky bar this week on account of complicated travel schedules. Lucretia sits in the host chair as Steve was still feeling light-headed from too much high-altitude skiing while John is his usual jaunty self, baiting Lucretia with his thoughts in the Boston Globe about how Alvin Bragg and the other chipmunks of the left are blowing it with their attempt to bring down Trump through the dubious vehicle of Stormy Daniels. That's just a warmup for a review of this week's developments in the Harvard affirmative action case and the Stanford Law School DEI meltdown, which are related at their core. The New Yorker, of all unexpected places, launched a high-explosive torpedo at Harvard, while Stanford's DEI evil empire doubled down on wokery. Steve wonders whether the DEI dean, Tirien Steinbach, and the National Lawyers Guild chapter that ginned up the student protest against Judge Kyle Duncan, are double-agents secretly in the employ of Karl Rove or the Koch brothers or something, given the damage they did to campus wokery through this single incident. (Actually it just shows how thick and impervious is the campus woke bubble.) And we end with a celebration of what has to be one of Kamala Harris's top five cringiest word-salads, and a puzzle over the explosion of a . . . chocolate factory, just before Easter. Coincidence?
Host:
Steve Hayward
Organization
Ricochet
3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

The Three Whisky Happy Hour: Silicon Death Valley Days

John and Steve are off galavanting in Florida, up to all kinds of mischief and boozy dinners, so this episode was recorded sans whisky but after a lot of fine wines. So this episode really could have been called "the three Bordeaux happy hour," plus steak. We picked up where we left off last week, with some follow up thoughts on the defects of the criminal justice system especially when it comes to "political" offenses like protesting at the Capitol on that faraway winter day. The argument quickly degenerated into another session of beating up on John for his legal positivism. To be continued, probably, ad infinitum. . . Then we get to the main event: who had the worst week in Silicon Valley: Stanford University, or Silicon Valley Bank, and all of its tech bro clients? More to the point, what is the role of the new Nicene Creed of "diversity, equity, and inclusion" in the whole scene? Our detours take us to the controversy over Amy Wax at Penn, the San Francisco proposal for $5 million reparation payments, and lots of other related matters that summon forth our best rants ever.
Host:
Steve Hayward
Organization
Ricochet
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