April 26, Tuesday -- The political question doctrine -- that in some cases the U.S. Supreme Court and other federal courts lack the power to determine the constitutionality of actions by Congress or the president -- will be the subject of a lecture at UC Davis. Jesse Choper, the Earl Warren Professor of Public Law at UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall, will present "Making Sense of the Political Question Doctrine." The doctrine bears on cases such as Bush vs. Gore, which decided the 2000 presidential election, and on war-on-terror cases that question the government's powers under the Patriot Act and the military detention of alleged unlawful combatants. The Edward L. Barrett Jr. Lecture, free and open to the public, will begin at 4 p.m. in the Moot Court Room of King Hall. The lectureship was established in 1986 to mark the School of Law's 20th anniversary and the retirement of its founding dean.