of the most timely books since 9/11, In Time of War takes no prisoners in exposing the unconstitutionality

O'Donnell breaks new ground in recounting the behind-the-scenes machinations and cover-ups of FDR, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, the feuding War and Justice Departments, and a Supreme Court corrupted by conflicts of interest and intrigues. For the first time, the public learns of Roosevelt's single-minded preoccupation with executing the Nazi terrorists, his collusion with Justice Felix Frankfurter, and his naked threats to the High Court that he would execute them regardless of its decision in their appeal. O'Donnell makes an irrefutable case for the illegitimacy of the Supreme Court's unanimous decision in Ex parte Quirin sustaining the President's authority to bypass civilian courts.

At the heart of the book is the dramatic confrontation between the Commander-in-Chief Roosevelt and Army Colonel Kenneth C. Royall appointed by FDR to defend the Nazis before a secret kangaroo court of seven generals. In a profile of courage, Royall speaks truth to power, zealously defending his doomed clients against overwhelming odds and saving two of their lives. Ordered by Roosevelt not to challenge his authority to deny his clients trial by jury in a civilian court, the ace North Carolina trial lawyer—torn between his conflicting duties as an officer of the Army and an offcier of the court—ultimately defies FDR and doggedly pursues an appeal to the Supreme Court. A former Supreme Court law clerk, O'Donnell vividly recreates the two-day, historic argument in Ex parte Quirin pitting the eloquent Royall against legendary Attorney General Francis Biddle and featuring some of the greatest justices in history (Black, Douglas, and Frankfurter).

Weaving seamlessly into the variegated tapestry of his exciting story President Franklin D. Roosevelt's infamous internment of 117,000 loyal Japanese Americans and the suspension of the Black civil rights agenda in the name of "military necessity," In Time of War is history that speaks to us today as it brings to life the challenges facing an earlier generation of Americans in waging a global war of survival and reconciling security and civil liberties at home. Offering a cautionary tale of the danger of unchecked executive power in a time of national emergencies, the book sharply illustrates the parallels between then and now and demonstrates the fallacy of relying on Supreme Court precedents from World War II to justify modern-day denial of basic constitutional rights to citizens and noncitizens suspected of terrorist acts.

Written in an accessible style, In Time of War lucidly explains for the general reader important constitutional principles such as trial by jury, right to counsel, the writ of habeas corpus, separation of powers, the rule of law, and the vital role of an independent, courageous judiciary in protecting the civil liberties of unpopular minorities in times of crisis.

Besides the copious endnotes documenting his thousands of sources, O'Donnell has created this website offering access to dozens of the original, previously classified materials, including the 3,000-page military trial and Supreme Court argument transcripts, as well as President Roosevelt's and President Bush's orders for military trials, internal FBI and Supreme Court files, key Supreme Court and lower federal court opinions, period newspaper articles, Colonel Royall's unpublished memoirs about the German Saboteur Case, German High Command records, and Bush Administration internal memos leading up to the torture of prisoners of war in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.