Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal News Blogs -> JURIST - The Paper Chase

Legal News

: JURIST - The Paper Chase

Federal judge refuses to dismiss torture lawsuit against Bush admnistration lawyer

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] A judge for the US District Court for the Northern District of California ruled Friday that a torture lawsuit against former Bush administration lawyer John Yoo can proceed. Judge Jeffrey White refused to dismiss a lawsuit brought by convicted terrorist Jose Padilla that claims Yoo's legal opinions endorsing enhanced interrogation techniques led to Padilla being tortured. Friday's ruling was the first time a judge has allowed a lawsuit to proceed against a government lawyer for his opinion in the interrogation memos. Yoo, a professor at the Berkeley School of Law has faced sharp criticism for his role in drafting the memos. Last month, a number of organizations called for the drafters of the memos to be disbarred. Also in May, former JFK speechwriter Ted Sorensen told an audience at the University of Nebraska College of Law that the lawyers from the Department of Justice (DOJ) who had authorized the use of enhanced interrogation techniques had "disgraced not only their country but their profession." In April, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee renewed his call for the formation of a non-partisan "truth commission" to investigate torture allegations. Also last month, UN special rapporteur on torture Manfred Nowak insisted that under international law the US must prosecute DOJ lawyers who drafted the memos. President Barack Obama has said that he would not rule out the possibility of prosecuting lawyers who authored the memos. Padilla is currently serving a seventeen-year sentence in a Colorado "supermax" prison on a variety of terror-related charges.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on June 13, 2009 (boomark / email).