Posted on 02/10/2010 7:49:01 AM PST by SmithL
As reports circulate that the Justice Department has softened its criticism of attorney John Yoo for memos approving the Bush administration's treatment of terrorism suspects, several prominent lawyers are urging a federal appeals court in San Francisco to hold Yoo accountable.
They have submitted arguments opposing dismissal of a prisoner's lawsuit that accuses the former Justice Department attorney of providing a legal cover for torture. The suit covers much of the same ground as the department's ethics investigation of Yoo.
Yoo, a UC Berkeley law professor, worked from 2001 to 2003 for the department's Office of Legal Counsel, which advises the president on legal issues. He wrote a 2002 memo that justified waterboarding and other forcible interrogation methods and said the president may have the power to authorize torture. Another memo said U.S. military forces could use "any means necessary" to seize and hold terror suspects in the United States.
The Chronicle and other newspapers reported in May 2009 that Justice Department investigators had decided Yoo violated standards of professional conduct by letting administration officials influence his conclusions. They found no grounds for criminal prosecution but recommended forwarding their findings to state bar disciplinary authorities.
But last week Newsweek and the Washington Post, quoting anonymous sources, reported that a final draft found Yoo guilty only of poor judgment and not professional misconduct.
If the reports of the still-unreleased findings are accurate, they would remove the possibility of government action against Yoo.
Yoo says he always gave good-faith legal advice and denies authorizing torture. Those claims could be tested in a San Francisco federal court, however, unless Yoo can persuade a court to dismiss Jose Padilla's lawsuit.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Maybe Yoo, but not Mee.
What happens when the shoe is on the other foot ... or a Pubbie Administration.
The Obama Administration, I think, is picking and choosing their battles. Sometimes wisely and sometimes not. On this issue I believe that they do not want Holder & Company to be hunted down in 3 years or 8.
Yoo is a brilliant man that can hit back with some real zingers. He mopped up the floor with John Stewart.
One of the left’s favorite tactics is to attack and try to destroy the individual conservative. We need to do the same. The lawyers behind this petition need to be identified and conservative legal groups need to file complaints and lawsuits against them on whatever basis can be developed. Make them spend their time and money defending themselves, not just attacking conservatives.
Lawsuits aren’t all that good a way to harrass someone. Better yet you want to LABEL them ~
From the article it appears this is a list of the lawyers.
They include Erwin Chemerinsky, law school dean at UC Irvine; Alan Morrison, an assistant law dean at George Washington and former director of Public Citizen Litigation Group; and Norman Dorsen of New York University, former president of the American Civil Liberties Union.
The legal ethics professors include Stanford’s Deborah Rhode and former California Supreme Court Justice Cruz Reynoso, now at UC Davis. They stressed the importance of applying ethical standards to lawyers who advise the president on constitutional issues.
That is absolute bull***t. I've read the memo. It said, basically, that existing "positive law" (mostly treaties) defining what "torture" is are pretty vague/ give few concrete guidelines. "Torture," as I remember the memo(*), included breaking bones, causing organ or joint failure, OR causing pain commensurate with such injuries. Actions short of that line, a very fuzzy line, were not "torture" and were at least technically legal. That may be a correct or incorrect view of the law, but there is no indication of bad faith. The article just flat-out lies when it says Yoo said the Pres could authorize torture. (*-- It's possible I read the other so-called "torture memo" by Jay Bybee. If so, I apologize.)
Yoo who?
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