Steve Aftergood at Secrecy News reports on a weird episode: Attorney General Michael Mukasey reacted pretty strongly to a bill sponsored by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisc.) that would compel congressional notification of opinions by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel that conclude the executive branch isn’t bound by More…
The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel today released another slew of previously-classified legal memos, setting forth the department’s justifications for everything from the legality of the use of military commissions to try suspected terrorists to the authority of the president to use force against Iraq to the status of More…
Most of the discussion of President-elect Barack Obama’s appointments announced Monday focused on whether Leon Panetta does or doesn’t have the experience to run the CIA. However, it’s worth noting that Dawn Johnsen, Obama’s pick for the once-obscure post of head of the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department More…
As Daphne blogged earlier today, Dawn Johnsen of Indiana University Law School is going to helm the Justice Dept.’s Office of Legal Counsel, a crucial position for the balance between civil liberties and national security. (Under the Bush administration, it became the go-to office for rubber-stamping the legality More…
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