rssDershowitz Defends Yoo
Saturday, March 21, 2009 at 3:57 pm
- 3 Comments
Here’s an insightful observation from Harper’s Scott Horton today about Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz’s latest defense of the academic freedom of John Yoo, who reportedly may be asked to leave his tenured professorship at the University of California at Berkeley if an internal Justice Department report finds him guilty of ethical violations, as is widely expected:
I marvel over Dershowitz’s new-found perspective on academic freedom. Can this be the same Alan Dershowitz who launched a massive and successful campaign against Norman Finkelstein to deny him tenure at DePaul University because of his criticism of the Israeli government and of Alan Dershowitz himself? In the Dershowitz perspective, academic freedom apparently shields those whose viewpoints are very close to his own, but not his critics.
Dershowitz was one of the early supporters of the idea that torture might very well be a good idea on people we suspect of terrorism — only, of course, in that theoretical ticking time bomb case, where interrogators somehow know that the person they’re torturing could save us all, if they just torture him brutally enough.
None of this has affected Dershowitz’s tenured position at Harvard — but then, he wasn’t writing memos for the Department of Justice authorizing torture and other techniques of brutality that plainly violated domestic and international law.
For now, Yoo is a “Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law” at the illustrious Chapman University School of Law in Orange County, where his friend, Dean John Eastman, had to issue a public apologia explaining the appointment, saying that even if most scholars think Yoo got the law wrong in his memos authorizing torture, some disagree, or think he “at least made a fair stab at it.”
That’s a pretty low bar to set for a tenured professor at one of the nation’s top law schools. And if the Department of Justice ever issues that internal Office of Professional Responsibility memo that’s still awaiting Attorney General Eric Holder’s approval, Yoo may find himself depending on the kindness of his friends in Orange County for far longer than he anticipated.
3 Comments
Comment posted March 21, 2009 @ 11:39 pm
I favor torture if God him/her self says that the torturee holds the secret password that will save the world.
Other than that torture is barbaric, inhumane, not reliable, illegal and for those that do it, degrading.
Mr. D's scenario is akin to saying I favor torture if will work and give us what we urgently need. I favor turning lead into gold if the process will work and we certainly need it. As Major Hoople used to say, “Phaat.”
As to Mr. Yoo and his position as a lecturing professor, if I was one of his students and could not pass the BAR using what he taught me in his class I certainly would be consoled if he made a fair stab at it. In fact I would take his class if the bar examiners used the “fair stab at it” as the criteria for a passing grade.
Certainly if I was a defense attorney in a Murder case I would expect the jury to acquit if I made a “fair stab at it.”
Additionally on careful, long and diligent thought I would be satisfied if my heart surgeon or brain surgeon operating on my son damaged my son on the table, but “at least made a fair stab at it.”
Phaat!!!
Comment posted March 22, 2009 @ 6:39 am
I favor torture if God him/her self says that the torturee holds the secret password that will save the world.
Other than that torture is barbaric, inhumane, not reliable, illegal and for those that do it, degrading.
Mr. D's scenario is akin to saying I favor torture if will work and give us what we urgently need. I favor turning lead into gold if the process will work and we certainly need it. As Major Hoople used to say, “Phaat.”
As to Mr. Yoo and his position as a lecturing professor, if I was one of his students and could not pass the BAR using what he taught me in his class I certainly would be consoled if he made a fair stab at it. In fact I would take his class if the bar examiners used the “fair stab at it” as the criteria for a passing grade.
Certainly if I was a defense attorney in a Murder case I would expect the jury to acquit if I made a “fair stab at it.”
Additionally on careful, long and diligent thought I would be satisfied if my heart surgeon or brain surgeon operating on my son damaged my son on the table, but “at least made a fair stab at it.”
Phaat!!!
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