Constitutional Law

Unforgettable "Yoo"

John C. Yoo, who controversially justified sacrificing civil liberties in President Bush's 'war on terror,' remains under public scrutiny.

Earlier this month, the Justice Department released several memos written or co-written by Yoo during his time at the Department's Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). Those memos created an uproar around revelations that the Bush administration's notion of executive authority was even more expansive than originally thought. Despite the hullabaloo, Yoo openly spoke with a reporter in Orange, California, where he is currently a visiting professor at a local law school.

Notoriety continues to follow Yoo and his former colleagues in Bush's Justice Department. This week, the media is rife with headlines like 'Terror-War Fallout Lingers Over Bush Lawyers,' and 'What to Do About John C. Yoo?'

 'I think the legal profession in the United States has been seriously hurt by their conduct,' said Stephen Gillers, professor of legal ethics at New York University. Gillers called the opinions in the released OLC memos 'sloppy, one-sided and incompetent,' adding, 'There has to be accountability.'

Echoing that call for having Yoo and others answer for their OLC work, Slate's Dahlia Lithwick asks, 'What's the president's rationale for keeping so many legal skeletons in the closet?' In addition to recently releasing the Yoo-era OLC memos, Lithwick describes Obama's relationship with Bush administration legal issues: '[Obama officials] brokered a deal whereby Karl Rove and Harriet Miers will finally testify about the U.S. attorney firings (but not publicly). Meanwhile, the administration clings to its bizarre decision to hold fast to the Bush administration's all-encompassing view of the ‘state secrets' privilege, and the Nixonian view of executive power deployed to justify it.' Additionally, the current administration is backing Yoo in a suit by former Guantanamo detainee Jose Padilla.

Continuing not to dodge scrutiny, Yoo wrote an op-ed published by The Wall Street Journal this weekend that called the Bush administration's reactions to 9/11 'prudent and responsible.' In justifying his work for the OLC, Yoo noted that he and other Justice Department attorneys at the time 'provided advice on unprecedented questions under the most severe time pressures.'

Full post as published by ACS Blog on March 09, 2009 (boomark / email).