National Lawyers Guild calls for Yoo’s disbarment.
National Lawyers Guild calls for Yoo’s disbarment.
Today, the National Lawyers Guild — the “oldest and largest public interest/human rights bar organization in the United States” — called on Berkeley’s law school, Boalt Hall, to dismiss former Bush administration John Yoo, who is a law professor there. From the Guild’s statement:
In a memorandum written the same month George W. Bush invaded Iraq, Boalt Hall law professor John Yoo said the Department of Justice would construe US criminal laws not to apply to the President’s detention and interrogation of enemy combatants. According to Yoo, the federal statutes against torture, assault, maiming and stalking do not apply to the military in the conduct of the war. […]
“John Yoo’s complicity in establishing the policy that led to the torture of prisoners constitutes a war crime under the US War Crimes Act,” said National Lawyers Guild President Marjorie Cohn.
Congress should repeal the provision of the Military Commissions Act that would give Yoo immunity from prosecution for torture committed from September 11, 2001 to December 30, 2005. John Yoo should be disbarred and he should not be retained as a professor of law at one of the country’s premier law schools. John Yoo should be dismissed from Boalt Hall and tried as a war criminal.
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog Roll
I’ll second that!!!
April 9th, 2008 at 6:36 pmWow, just wow! Good on them.
April 9th, 2008 at 6:37 pmWoo Hoo for me and you.
Boo Hoo for Mr. Yoo.
April 9th, 2008 at 6:37 pmf yoo
April 9th, 2008 at 6:39 pmGood.
April 9th, 2008 at 6:39 pmCongress should repeal the provision of the Military Commissions Act that would give Yoo immunity from prosecution for torture committed from September 11, 2001 to December 30, 2005. John Yoo should be disbarred and he should not be retained as a professor of law at one of the country’s premier law schools. John Yoo should be dismissed from Boalt Hall and tried as a war criminal.
While I do generally agree with this entire assessment , Yoo was merely a facilitator…The entire Chimpy administration are the architects of this entire sorry episode , and should be put on trial before Yoo is………..
April 9th, 2008 at 6:42 pmCongress should repeal the provision of the Military Commissions Act that would give Yoo immunity from prosecution for torture committed from September 11, 2001 to December 30, 2005.
April 9th, 2008 at 6:42 pm——————–
While you’re at it can you change the part that allows the President to name me an Enemy Combatant denied Habeas Corpus?
ouch…that’s gotta hurt.
Looks like Bush has a convenient “fall guy”….otherwise known as a “low level staffer”.
April 9th, 2008 at 6:45 pmWhile I do generally agree with this entire assessment , Yoo was merely a facilitator…The entire Chimpy administration are the architects of this entire sorry episode , and should be put on trial before Yoo is………..
Probably so, but remember if Bush hadn’t received the flawed legal opinion from the likes of Yoo, he may not have had the legal underpinnings to follow through on his torture fantasy. If Yoo - or someone like him - didn’t provide the cover, Bush is far too much of a coward to make his own decisions. Bush would have needed the cover from the DOJ. He got his cover and the rest is our shame.
April 9th, 2008 at 6:47 pmStratRat Says:
April 9th, 2008 at 6:47 pm
While I do generally agree with this entire assessment , Yoo was merely a facilitator…The entire Chimpy administration are the architects of this entire sorry episode , and should be put on trial before Yoo is………..
Probably so, but remember if Bush hadn’t received the flawed legal opinion from the likes of Yoo, he may not have had the legal underpinnings to follow through on his torture fantasy. If Yoo - or someone like him - didn’t provide the cover, Bush is far too much of a coward to make his own decisions. Bush would have needed the cover from the DOJ. He got his cover and the rest is our shame.
April 9th, 2008 at 6:53 pmI don’t buy that ; I believe they searched for someone that actually believed/bought the belief in their bullshit rhetoric……….
I don’t buy that ; I believe they searched for someone that actually believed/bought the belief in their bullshit rhetoric……….
Of course you are right. I was thinking that maybe all the lawyers bush had at his disposal would have balked at transforming the country into the torture state we currently have. In my idealistic view, I thought lawyers kept copies of the Constitution handy as a reference. When requests came down to circumvent that document, true patriots would have turned and ran the other way.
April 9th, 2008 at 6:57 pmSo, is the Lawyers Guild pursuing disbarment, or just waiving flags? On a broader scale, DoJ attorneys and USA’s that politicized Justice and sought political based prosecutions should also face disbarment. It is probably the only recourse we have, as there is no political backbone in DC to seek indictments for the uncountable crimes of Bushco.
April 9th, 2008 at 6:58 pmIt’s about f’n time some of these WAR CRIMINALS started sweating about this crap.
Bush/Cheney/Yoo
April 9th, 2008 at 7:01 pmHague Trials ‘09
StratRat Says:
April 9th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
I don’t buy that ; I believe they searched for someone that actually believed/bought the belief in their bullshit rhetoric……….
Of course you are right. I was thinking that maybe all the lawyers bush had at his disposal would have balked at transforming the country into the torture state we currently have. In my idealistic view, I thought lawyers kept copies of the Constitution handy as a reference. When requests came down to circumvent that document, true patriots would have turned and ran the other way.
Read up on Nixon’s Saturday Night Massacre sometime. If you keep shopping, you’ll eventually (probably won’t take long) find a lawyer willing to tell you whatever you want to hear, especially if you’re the Preznut. Nixon actually had worse luck with this than Bush would ever have because there were a few men of conscience in his administration.
April 9th, 2008 at 7:03 pmAnd remember, the illustrious Mr. Yoo, Esq, was one of the early proposed nominees (by Dickey Darth Vader) to be Attorney General. Now THAT would have been quite the interesting set of hearings to get this Bozo through the pipeline!
April 9th, 2008 at 7:04 pmit doesn’t matter where it starts, if that’s with yoo so be it, but the credibility of the United States as a nation of laws and the American people as humane members of humanity requires that the bush regime criminals be brought to justice for their war crimes and crimes against humanity. bush, cheney, rumsfeld, powell, rice, wolfowitz, feith, gonzales, yoo, and all others MUST be brought to justice before any thought of America’s recovery can begin. simply allowing them all to slide into old age will closure on this despicable period of criminality and amorality at the highest levels of the US government.
April 9th, 2008 at 7:05 pm.
tombaker@3 & gumby@4: Can this really be troo, er, true?
April 9th, 2008 at 7:06 pmCORRECTION:
“…into old age will PREVENT closure on…”
April 9th, 2008 at 7:07 pmIf I’m not mistaken, the State of California would be the entity to undertake disbarment.
So DO IT CALI!
And, yes, Berserkely should also fire his fascist ass.
April 9th, 2008 at 7:11 pmThat’d be a start…
April 9th, 2008 at 7:11 pmIf the powers that be be had any sense of decency, they would not only disbar hime but bring him up on war crimes.
April 9th, 2008 at 7:14 pmhttp://comedianforpresident.com/
RUCerious,
If Berkley fired his sorry arse, he would just end up the head of Constitutional Law at Regent U., the spawning grounds of so many of this regime’s “best and brightest” minds in the AG office.
April 9th, 2008 at 7:16 pmYoomama isn’t licensed to practice law in Cal. from what I’ve found at http://www.calbar.ca.gov/ though he is authorized to appear before the 9th Circuit. I’m confused?
April 9th, 2008 at 7:21 pmHmm, he teaches at Cal Berserkely, but isn’t licensed to the bar in California. Could it be that he isn’t licensed to practice at all? How would he appear before the Circuit (we know he appears to be a fascist Neocon, but from the legal sense…_)?
April 9th, 2008 at 7:31 pmYup, exactly!
Write UC - Berkeley and tell them you think so, too. I did. You can too!
http://www.law.berkeley.edu/ faculty/ profiles/ facultyList.php#faculty
April 9th, 2008 at 7:53 pmdisbarment would be a start.
April 9th, 2008 at 8:35 pmMarjorie Cohn, I will send you money if you start disbarment proceedings right away. Then have him thrown in jail to await his trial for War Crimes. John Yoo should not have the luxury of another day of freedom for the rest of his life.
His trial can’t start soon enough for me.
April 9th, 2008 at 8:47 pm“The wheels of justice grind slow, but they grind exceedingly fine”
April 9th, 2008 at 8:51 pmWhat gives them the idea the U.S. stopped the torture in 2005? Is there hard evidence? How about dated videotapes? No?
Too many people in positions who should know the difference still think we are dealing with honest people here. Including many in the Senate and the House. I applaud this effort, but do they really think these criminals will pay any attention or do anything about it?
We are on the edge of a very dangerous cliff, and if we wait much longer, we will never be able to recover.
April 9th, 2008 at 10:17 pmIf the “ENHANCED INTERROGATION TECHNIQUES” were “LEGAL” then why the need for immunity for the interrogators?
If the speed limit is 55mph, do I need immunity to go 54mph?
Notice in the piece the reporter keeps educating the public that these techniques were claimed to be LEGAL by the Justice Department based on a memo written later to be rebutted by the White House. All while she did mention Tenent wanted that immunity for his agents.
DOUBLESPEAK PLUS GOOD!
April 10th, 2008 at 5:44 am#30 Max-1 Says:
April 10th, 2008 at 5:48 amApril 10th, 2008 at 5:44 am
Oops… wrong thread. sry ;/
#6 MCMetal:
While I do generally agree with this entire assessment , Yoo was merely a facilitator…The entire Chimpy administration are the architects of this entire sorry episode , and should be put on trial before Yoo is……….
Wow. You’re a psychic. They, OTOH, are psychotics….
Cheers,
April 10th, 2008 at 8:59 amWhat does it say about the Boalt Hall Law School that it continues to employ this war criminal? Isn’t harboring a criminal a crime in and of itself?
If the school won’t take action to rid itself of this pox on humanity, what would serve it right would be a boycott, organized or otherwise, by aspiring law school applicants. Why would someone want to be known as having attended a law school that provided aid and comfort to this barbarian.
Let’s see how long the school continues to shelter Mr. Yoo when its pool of applicants dries up.
April 10th, 2008 at 9:41 amLegal underpinnings my ass! There’s no logic nor morality to what Yoo did. It was a sorry attempt to cover the administration in the cloak of legality when it was nothing of the sort. Basing policies on such a tissue of crap doesn’t have any ultimate legal authority. Good for the National Lawyers Guild. Get this criminal behind bars.
April 10th, 2008 at 10:58 amI don’t believe that 80% of the American public knows that the Military Commissions Act actually provides immunity from prosecution. As with the case of the telecommunications companies immunity I ask, if you did nothing wrong why the need for immunity?
April 10th, 2008 at 12:29 pm>It would insulate them from any action by the Hague and >restrict jurisdiction for such a prosecution to the US.
No it woudlnt. THe ICC has juridiction when the accused persons home country refuses to prosecute the defendant for any reason. Immunity being on the books may be one reason the
April 10th, 2008 at 1:59 pmperson isnt prosecuted, but there may be others..