Legal News

Under Fire for Memos, Bybee Reaches Out

By Ashby Jones

In some ways, the controversy concerning John Yoo and Jay Bybee — the former Bush administration lawyers who wrote memos sanctioning the CIA’s use of harsh interrogation techniques, is dying down. The Justice Department earlier this week said it's nearing the completion of an internal probe expected to recommend professional sanctions - but no criminal prosecution — of Yoo and Bybee.

But in other ways, the situation might just be heating up, especially for Bybee, now a Ninth Circuit judge. An NYT editorial out Thursday again calls for Bybee’s impeachment. Writes the NYT: “Mr. Bybee's case is the worst. While Mr. Yoo and Mr. [Stephen] Bradbury returned to private life, President Bush rewarded Mr. Bybee with a lifetime position on a federal appeals court. The memos he wrote or signed made it clear that he was not fit to make judgments about the law and the Constitution. Congress should remove him.”

According to the Las Vegas Sun, Bybee isn’t just taking it lying down. He recently reached out to members of the state's congressional delegation, apparently to tell his side of the story.

No one in the Nevada delegation has publicly asked Bybee to step off the bench or supported calls for his impeachment. But the judge, who sits in Las Vegas, recently reached out to Democratic Rep. Dina Titus, who represents Bybee in Nevada's 3rd Congressional District. Titus said Wednesday that no meeting has been scheduled. But she said she hopes to hear Bybee out - and to share her concerns.

"I'd like to hear from him if he thinks he made the right decision interpreting the law and doing the job as he saw it defined," Titus told the Sun on Wednesday. "But I also will not hesitate to make it clear to him that I absolutely disagree with his interpretation. The United States is not a country of torture."

Bybee is a member of the Washington, D.C., bar. If disbarred, Bybee could remain on the bench unless impeached by Congress. Federal judges do not have to be members of the bar to be nominated to the federal bench, at any level, including on the Supreme Court.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on May 07, 2009 (boomark / email).