Advising the President

“Casto’s study is full of interesting insights, including how Jackson's private legal advice was not necessarily mirrored in his public commentary; why presidents in general might decide to violate the law in pursuit of other goals; and what moral responsibility an attorney general shares when a president does so.”—Congress & the Presidency

“Helpfully, Casto does not merely rehearse Jackson’s defenses and occasional reservations about Roosevelt’s actions. He also subjects Jackson’s legal arguments and policy advice to pointed critique. A compelling meditation on the dividing line between executive service and complicity.”—Journal of American History

"The author’s careful attention to historical, legal, and political detail during the Roosevelt period is a strength of his analysis and serves to appropriately ground the work for its audience. Advising the President provides a unique look into the complex advisory nature of executive branch politics."—Political Science Quarterly

“Justice Robert H. Jackson was one of the Supreme Court’s most gifted writers and a longtime intimate advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Professor Casto nicely illuminates their relationship and Jackson’s legal and political thought.”—David M. O'Brien, author of Justice Robert H. Jackson’s Unpublished Opinion in Brown v. Board

“Robert Jackson served with distinction as solicitor general, attorney general, and associate justice of the Supreme Court. His concurring opinion in the Youngstown Steel Seizure Case of 1952 remains a landmark. W. R. Casto adeptly explores in detail Jackson’s nuanced and evolving understanding of a president’s constitutional powers. This is an important book. It not only explains and assesses Jackson’s views, it also helps us gain insight on enduring constitutional issues that remain relevant today.”—John P. Burke, John G. McCullough Professor of Political Science, University of Vermont

“William Casto has produced a readable and accessible synthesis of an understudied topic, the relationship between an American president and his chief legal advisor. Despite the extensive scholarly commentary on the careers of Franklin Roosevelt and Robert Jackson, there has hitherto been no sustained analysis of Jackson’s role in giving Roosevelt legal advice on a variety of topics between 1938 and 1941, years in which Jackson served as Solicitor General and Attorney General before being appointed by Roosevelt to the Supreme Court. Casto has filled that gap.”—G. Edward White, David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor of Law and University Professor, University of Virginia School of Law