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Group Wants Courts to Play ‘Keep Away’ from Torture Lawyers
Critics are working to disbar Bush administration "torture architects" from practicing law in courts again, and if that doesn't work they're enlisting attorneys to move to disqualify them as judges.
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Jay Bybee (pictured) and fellow author of Bush administration torture memos John Yoo were last week found guilty of "professional midconduct" and "poor judgment" for ignoring established case law. They were nevertheless cleared of any criminal charges. (File) Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Jay Bybee and fellow author of Bush administration torture memos John Yoo were last week found guilty
of "professional midconduct" and "poor judgment" for ignoring
established case law. They were nevertheless cleared of any criminal
charges.
The Disbar Torture Lawyers campaign, which is part of a consortium that boasts over 120 transparency and watchdog groups, is now working to disbar Bybee and others complicit in advocating illegal interrogation methods.
"Judge Bybee can no longer pretend to be fair, impartial, or to exercise good judgment," said attorney and campaign spokesperson Kevin Zeese in a statement. "He has been found to possess all the qualities that people do not want in a judge - bias, poor judgment, predetermination, failure to follow established law, and professional misconduct."
DisbarTortureLawyers.com, a project of Velvet Revolution, states as its guiding principle, "Torture is illegal under both United States and international law" and prohibited as "cruel and unusual punishment" under the Eighth Amendment.
The group has filed complaints to sanction Bybee and remove him from his judge post, backed with specific language from the Department of Justice's Office of Personal Responsibility that details his wrongdoings.
"No plaintiff or defendant should be subjected to the authority of a judge who has been so thoroughly discredited," said Zesse, who is also urging lawyers and their clients to move to disqualify Bybee.
"We call on every plaintiff and defendant whose case is assigned to Judge Bybee to demand that their lawyer file a motion to disqualify him, and if the lawyer refuses, to take action against the lawyer for failing to protect their interests and the integrity of the judicial process."
Also targeted in the campaign are Bybee's fellow torture memo author John Yoo and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. The group intends to work with and support Congress in taking further steps to sanction these individuals and disbar those who are still working as judges.
Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) has announced plans to hold House Judiciary Committee hearings on the Bush administration lawyers whose legal memos justified the use of torture on terrorism detainees.
Last year, John Podesta, a leader of President Obama's transition team and former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, said Bybee should be impeached.
There "is a distinction between going back and prosecuting in the criminal courts the actors who were involved in these memos and letting Judge Bybee continue to sit on a court one step removed from the Supreme Court," Podesta said. "He's acting and listening to cases and making judgments of others, and we know that he authorized things that were illegal under U.S. law and violated the U.S. obligations under international treaties."
Podesta heads the Center for American Progress Action, a liberal think tank.
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9 Comments so far
Show AllGood, make these scumbag’s lives a little more difficult than they are used to… It’s too bad they can’t experience what they advocated with their so called decisions. They are a disgrace to this country.
They are a disgrace to humanity.
Everyone who reads this should contact the DOJ and raise hell. The only way this stops is if they find out the people are aware and won't tolerate it anymore. And before you say it, I am not naive. They continue to do things like this (allow war criminals their freedom) because NOT ENOUGH OUTRAGE is being shown. When the outrage reaches critical mass they will all too readily sacrifice the few to protect the rest.
odoco February 22nd, 2010 3:27 pm -- I think the DOJ is a lost cause. To keep the adverse conclusions from getting to state bars, as career DOJ prosecutor David Margolis would, renders the conclusions meaningless. The Disbar Torture Lawyers campaign is now carrying the ball.
You're exactly right, however, that not enough outrage is being shown. The reason partly has to do with the very small fraction of the U.S. population who have any idea what's going on. The general population knows only that the Republicans, led by Dick Cheney, are standing up for the country by exposing the Obama administration's desire to "give Miranda rights" and lawyers to terrorists. The general public is so screwed up on this that there's little hope of generating the needed outrage among them.
However, lawyers, judges, and even law enforcement personnel know that the laws against torturing detainees were violated. Their problem is that they buy into Cheney's insistent lie that torture works and has protected the country from terrorists, so that it would be political suicide to prosecute. There is a chance of turning around at least a few of these people. They must be confronted with the outrage some of us feel due to the law going unenforced. They must be stridently assured that they will be supported if they do their duty by enforcing the law. Eventually, if enough outrage about the call of duty gets expressed, a few of them might actually answer the call.
Lets go after Bush and Cheney's tailors next....especially the one that make that fake codpience flightsuit for the Chimp...
Going after the scumbag lawyers but letting the actual war criminals to wander around loose it ludicrous.
The news of the scott-free legal escape of those dirty, disgusting, and detestable "torture lawyers", John Yoo and Jay Bybee really set me off.
This miscarriage of the Empire's excuse for 'justice' caused me to think about how the miscarriage of justice, under the woefully mis-named 'Justice Department' has actually deteriorated even from the early days of that slug, John Mitchell and the dispicable Nixon era of the president acting as if he is "above the law", and I wrote this to my local Boston Globe:
--------------------------------------------------------
"It is ironic, but harking back to American relative innocence of the Watergate era crimes of Nixon, it was shocking that our president would consider himself "above the law".
Now, only four short decades later, it is clear from this report (of Yoo and Bybee's skate) that not only is the high office of the president "above the law", but that every low-level, lying Tom, Dick, and Harry working for this perverted Empire is "above the law".
Clearly, all corporate CEO's and lower level crooks and looters are "above the law", as are these dirty lawyers working for the Empire "above the law", as are the CIA drone assassination squads "above the law", as are ..... everyone with special CYA by this damn Empire.
When Ralph Nader, in 1996 wrote "No Contest" to describe how the application of American law had become hopelessly differentiated between the favorable treatment of corporations, and the harsh treatment of average citizens he would probably have not envisioned the rapid decline to this current level of inequitable application of the laws of our country to the point where there and now two dramatically divided classes; those carrying an "Empire Membership Card", and the vast majority of good, honest, average Americans now tagged as "Empire Targets" --- to be punished or eliminated with impunity by the ruling EMPIRE.
Alan MacDonald
Sanford, Maine
Could this conclusion be any different since most of the DOJ is still filled with Bush appointees?
What is the point of all those guns in the USA if human filth like Yoo and Bybee aren't on the receiving end of some of them?
You can thank Rahm Emanuel, Obama's Chief of Staff, for putting the breaks on a real investigation into the criminal activities of the torture lawyers and the architects of torture they were working for. As COS Emanuel has kowtowed to torture advocating Senate republicans out of political expediency. Not only has he kowtowed to them giving them what they want, but failed to influence these same republican senators to cooperate with Obama initiatives, failing his boss and the public on both counts.
Email the White House and request that he be removed. See The Washington Note blog for more on influencing the admin to change the staff that is crippling Obama's initiatives. Nearly every major initiative -- health care reform, financial reform, foreign policy -- has been stymied largely through Emanuel's bungling of the political background work that needs to be accomplished to achieve one's goals. Tell the White House that too much is at stake to keep losing these political battles to the discredited republican obstructionists.
A Texas sheriff was prosecuted for waterboarding a prisoner under a torture statute. US soldiers have been prosecuted for waterboarding under torture statutes. Foreign military officials have been prosecuted for waterboarding under torture statutes. Torture is illegal under US and international law, and Dick Cheney admits on national television that he supported waterboarding. He should be prosecuted, and the lawyers that wrote his justifications, if there is any meaning left to US law. Thank Emanuel for placing politics before justice and American values.