{"id":31523,"date":"2017-02-09T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-02-09T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=31523"},"modified":"2017-02-09T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-02-09T19:00:00","slug":"kevin-underhill-body-slams-john-mr-enhanced-interrogation-yoo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sidebarforplaintiffs.naomifein.net\/?p=31523","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Underhill body-slams John “Mr. Enhanced Interrogation” Yoo"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

From the inimitable Kevin Underhill, maestro of LoweringTheBar, comes this devastating analysis of John Yoo. Who is the guy who…well, read Kevin’s headline.<\/p>\n

I’m categorizing this one as “strictly for bitter laughter,” but I’ve highlighted a couple of Kevin’s lines which will cause you to belly-laugh, with no bitterness whatsoever.<\/p>\n

Lawyer Who Wrote Torture Memos Has \u201cGrave Concerns\u201d About Trump<\/em><\/h2>\n

Feb 08, 2017 05:30 am | Kevin<\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Well, look who it is! If it isn\u2019t\u00a0John Yoo<\/a>, the\u00a0Bush Administration\u00a0lawyer who will be forever\u00a0be known to history\u00a0as The Guy Who Wrote Those\u00a0Formerly Secret Legal Memos Justifying Torture, assuming such acts can still be criticized in the\u00a0hypothetical future thus envisioned. As I have mentioned before, although maybe not in sufficient detail, I think Yoo\u2019s actions were pretty despicable and, also, that his memos totally sucked.\u00a0See\u00a0\u201cProfessor: Maybe Secret Legal Memos Are Secret Because They Suck<\/a>\u201d (July 30, 2012);<\/strong> see also\u00a0\u201cWould the Last Civil Right in America Please Remember to Close the Door on Its Way Out?<\/a>\u201d (May 2, 2012).<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

So Mr.\u00a0Yoo, who is, oddly, now a professor at UC Berkeley\u2019s law school, has somehow managed to smuggle an op-ed piece\u00a0into\u00a0the\u00a0New York Times<\/a>\u00a0entitled \u201cExecutive Power Run Amok,\u201d in which he delivers his\u00a0carefully\u00a0considered opinion that, perhaps, one might be importuned to raise an eyebrow at the doings of President Donald J. Trump.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is a real hoot.<\/em><\/p>\n

The op-ed begins by musing about what Alexander Hamilton, \u201cour nation\u2019s most ardent proponent of executive power\u201d\u2014which he might arguably have been before another really\u00a0ardent proponent of that\u00a0shot him dead\u2014might think if faced with The Trump\u2019s actions these past two weeks. Turns out Hamilton would think what John Yoo thinks now! He would be worried, you see.<\/em><\/p>\n

Yoo spends the first third of the piece trying to squeeze into\u00a0Hamilton\u2019s britches, in fact, going on about Hamilton\u2019s belief in a strong presidency and noting that \u201c[m]any of Hamilton\u2019s intellectual admirers today\u201d\u2014John Yoo, perhaps?\u2014\u201dendorse the theory of the unitary executive,\u201d which holds that the president has enormous power, including \u201cthe powers to conduct foreign affairs, protect the national security, interpret and execute the law and manage all lower-level federal officers.\u201d (You may\u00a0have thought that the judicial branch \u201cinterprets\u201d the law, but not under the\u00a0Hamilton-Yoo Unified Theory of Power, apparently.)<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAs an official in the Justice Department,\u201d he continues, \u201cI followed in Hamilton\u2019s footsteps\u201d\u2014sorry, I just snorted vodka out of my nose. No, no, do go on.<\/strong> \u201c\u2014followed in Hamilton\u2019s footsteps, advising that President George W. Bush could take vigorous, perhaps extreme, measures to protect the nation\u2026.\u201d Controversial, this idea that some might consider things like indefinite detention without trial and torturing prisoners to be \u201cperhaps extreme,\u201d but there it is. Sorry, did I say \u201ctorturing\u201d? Of course I meant, \u201cenhanced interrogation,\u201d the nauseating term Yoo uses here. \u201cEnhancedly interrogating prisoners,\u201d that\u2019s what I meant to say. Yoo was also, unsurprisingly, totally fine with President Obama\u2019s use of this authority to blow up U.S. citizens without a trial, which I also thought was very much, and very obviously, not\u00a0okay.\u00a0See, e.g., \u201cThe Drone Memo: More Comedy About the Death of Freedom<\/a>\u201d (Feb. 6, 2013). Professor Yoo disagrees, however. The presidency, it is\u00a0robust.<\/em><\/p>\n

Then the bombshell: All the foregoing drivel notwithstanding, \u201ceven I have grave concerns about Mr. Trump\u2019s uses of presidential power.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Well, depending on what he might mean by \u201cgrave,\u201d he may finally be\u00a0right about something. If even Alex\u2014 I mean, even John Yoo is worried about Trump, maybe this will knock a little sense into people who aren\u2019t. But then, this is John Yoo\u2019s opinion we\u2019re talking about. And hearing from him, frankly,\u00a0is a little like hearing the guy who built\u00a0Jurassic Park criticizing the guy who\u00a0built Jurassic World. \u201cI firmly believe it is\u00a0a good idea to create huge monsters that eat people if given half a\u00a0chance. But even I have grave concerns about this new, even huger monster.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Well, he\u2019s not wrong, I guess. But that doesn\u2019t mean we want him to get any more involved at this point. He\u2019s done enough.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the inimitable Kevin Underhill, maestro of LoweringTheBar, comes this devastating analysis of John Yoo. Who is the guy who…well, read Kevin’s headline. I’m categorizing this one as “strictly for bitter laughter,” but I’ve highlighted a couple of Kevin’s lines … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1175],"tags":[1269,1268],"class_list":["post-31523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-facts-of-life","tag-enhanced-interrogation","tag-torture"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t