Why Is John Yoo Still Around?
February 18, 2009 by Big Fella
Why is John Yoo employed by the Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley? This is the man who told George Bush it was OK to commit and to permit criminal acts, just because he was the president. Why is this man teaching young people who will become attorney’s, who will be expected to uphold the law? What has gotten in to the regents of the University of California that they sanction hiring a brown-nosing legal whore who will tell his boss anything, no matter how outrageous, no matter how diametrically opposite to the letter and intent of the law, as long as it satisfies his bosses pre-existing bias and flawed judgment? At a time where California government is paralyzed by budget wrangling, why are the taxpayers of California paying the salary of this criminal facilitator of torture?
As reported by Jason Leopold in his article titled “DOJ Report on Yoo/Bybee Torture Memos ‘Daming’ “ in The Public Record:
A key line in George W. Bush’s defense against war crimes charges has weakened with the disclosure that an internal Justice Department watchdog has concluded that the legal advice, which cleared the way for Bush’s policies on torture and other abuse of detainees, was tainted by political influence.
An investigation by H. Marshall Jarrett, head of the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility, reached “damning” conclusions about numerous cases of “misconduct” in the advice from John Yoo and other lawyers in the Office of Legal Counsel during the Bush administration, according to legal sources familiar with the report’s contents.
OPR investigators determined that Yoo blurred the lines between an attorney charged with providing independent legal advice to the White House and a policy advocate who was working to advance the administration’s goals, said the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because the contents of the report are still classified.
Why hasn’t this political sycophant been disbarred and why am I still paying his salary? Is is that one off the facilitators of George W. Bush’s war crimes, like his bosses, will never be called to account? Is this acceptable to any freedom loving, law abiding, patriotic Americans?
Sphere: Related ContentRelated posts:
- Special Prosecutor? Perhaps… Several media outlets are reporting this morning that Eric Holder...
- News Digest: Bush admin OLC memos released in early March The rule of law was severely compromised under the...
- Take advantage of the openings President Obama continues to have opportunities to come down on...
You asked: Is this acceptable to any freedom loving, law abiding, patriotic Americans?
I answer: Fuck No!!!
Fran´s last blog post..Lives in the balance…
Sorry to disagree here but….here goes:
Yoo hasn’t been charged nor convicted of a crime. Unless and until he is…the college has the right to hire him. I did a long assed post on him awhile back…and I got lots of heat for my pov and logic:
http://leftwingnutjob.blogspot.com/2008/05/john-yoo-protest-and-issue-of-his.html
Yet, the man has every right to teach, he is after all, tenured. There is also another reason he should be allowed to teach, as much as it pains me to say; Academic Freedom. Christopher Edley, the Dean of Berkley’s Law School is an honorable man. He has worked for presidents and he currently advises Obama. His politics are liberal and yet his memo addressing the Yoo teaching issue is very spot-on when it comes to the basic tenant of why Yoo should be allowed to continue teaching at Berkley. A school he has been teaching at since 1993 and received tenure in 1999. From Dean Edley’s infamous memo on John Yoo:
There are important questions about the content of the Yoo memoranda, about tortured definitions of “torture,” about how he and his colleagues conceived their role as lawyers, and about whether and when the Commander in Chief is subject to domestic statutes and international law. We press our students to grapple with these matters, and in the legal literature Professor Yoo and his critics do battle. One can oppose and even condemn an idea, but I do not believe that in a university we can fearfully refuse to look at it. That would not be the best way to educate, nor a promising way to seek deeper understanding in a world of continual, strange revolutions.
Yoo also enjoys First Amendment rights and the most ironic of all, Due Process as well. So while we really have no conceivable reason to conclude he should be unceremoniously dumped at UC Berkley, we have every reason to wish some judge and jury somewhere would convict him and his BushCo employers of high crimes and misdemeanors. Only then could Mr. You be run out of Berkley’s Law School on a proverbial rail.
Your point is taken, Dusty. But for me, I see Yoo as part of a conspiracy on the part of the Bush administration to circumvent the Constitution and to ignore the rule of law. But beyond that, I find Yoo’s logic that supports his findings to be totally in opposition to rational thought process whether about application of the law, or how humans should treat other humans.
I find Mr. Yoo’s moral values unconscionable, and I just can’t fathom someone with such a flawed moral compass teaching young minds to respect the law, let alone a respect for all of humankind. He has every right to his views, and he can certainly set up his soap box on the quad at Berkeley or any other public venue, but I personally don’t want to be subsidizing him.
I know he has not been formally charged with anything, so I understand he has every right to expect to maintain his current position, but I would hope that if he is charged, he would then recuse himself from his public position as a member of the faculty of a state university until and if he clears his name. I don’t know his entire background, but it seems to me that this man has been living in a theoretical bubble if his entire career has been as a teacher or a Bush staff member. He seems really disconnected from having any appreciation for real people, having to operate and survive in real life, quick to offer dubious counsel that impacts real lives, while safely ensconced in his ivory tower.
This man needs to take an extended sabbatical and take a job as a victim’s or criminal attorney, or as a DA, and experience real life, and see the consequences of decisions in real life.
Back to your point, yes he can say and believe anything he wants, and in our free society he is presumed innocent until proven otherwise, and in our society he has a right to maintain his current employment. But I still don’t have to like the guy, and in my considered opinion he has allowed himself to be a tool of a corrupt administration and has through his actions ,significantly contributed to a prolongation of hostilities with terrorists, as he has given them reason to hate Americans.
Big Fella: but I personally don’t want to be subsidizing him.
Ah, but we can not pick or choose whom we subsidize based on merely our beliefs or pov. We have to support all forms of free speech and First Amendment protections.
Even the ACLU has represented reprehensible individuals.
The stank of John Yoo is overwhelming..so we must push for prosecution of this fuckwit, by any means necessary.
So, Dusty, you are saying that I can’t tar and feather Mr. Yoo and run him out of town… yet. OK, I’ll wait, but I can still dream and scheme.
I wouldn’t spit in his mouth if he was dying of thirst. I wouldn’t cross the street to help him if he was on fire…
Yep, we gotta prosecute him first…then tar and feather the worthless bastard.