Thursday, April 1, 2010
Court Slaps Down John Yoo, Again
Politics / People / Law Enforcement & Crime / Education Robert Gammon — Thu, Apr 1, 2010 at 10:22 AM
UC Berkeley law professor John Yoo loves to deride Berkeley as being far outside the mainstream, but a federal judge in San Francisco ruled yesterday that Yoo’s ideas are so extreme, they’re unconstitutional. The judge said that a legal theory the Bush administration used to justify warrantless wiretaps on Americans was flatly illegal. Yoo, along with lawyers working for then-Vice President Dick Cheney, came up with that theory while working for the Bush Department of Justice in 2002. The ruling represents another slap in the face for Yoo’s legal ideas, which repeatedly have been struck down by the courts.
In yesterday’s ruling, according to the Chron, Chief US District Court Judge Vaughn Walker ruled that the “theory of unfettered executive-branch discretion” during wartime holds an “obvious potential for government abuse” and is unconstitutional. Yoo’s sweeping view of a president as a defacto dictator during times of war has been repeatedly rebuked by the courts, including the US Supreme Court. Yoo employed the now disgraced legal opinion, which has no foundation in US law or court precedent, to authorize the torture of prisoners and warrantless wiretaps.
News that Yoo’s extreme ideas had been discredited again by the US legal system came on the heels of an interview that the professor gave to the Los Angeles Times in which he criticized Berkeley as being engulfed in a “Sea of Marxism,” because activists have called for him to be fired. “I think of myself as being West Berlin during the Cold War, a shining beacon of capitalism and democracy,” he told the newspaper.
And what a shining beacon of democracy he is. His legal views were so “democratic” that the courts have been repeatedly forced to call them unconstitutional. And they were so “democratic” they had to be soundly rejected by his own Republican successors in the Bush administration.
Comments (3)
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Shame on Yoo and Boalt, too! They said Adolph was a pleasant chap, too, but I wouldn't want him walking the halls of academia!
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Cyn, what were his words to you when you confronted him at Boalt Hall ? 'So you're the one who' s been making my life .....? I'm trying to remember his exact words. It was something to the effect that you'd made life uncomfortable for Mr. Yoo; but not nearly uncomfortable as he deserves. I thought about you, and those others who join you at these protests, and of course those who say, "Good for you, CodePink, hang in there, doing our job for us!" Thanks to everyone who has stood up to be counted and heard, voicing for the voiceless, "How dare you torture in our name!"
You're exactly right in your analysis Mr. Gammon. I appreciate your coverage of John Yoo, a hypocritical, unethical, traitor to democracy. Our next Yoo protest is at his house on April 18, 2-3 pm, 1241 Grizzly Peak. This is a "tea party" style protest, so don't wear tie-dye and Birkenstocks--- dress in your Republican finest.
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