marty lederman

The explosive inspectors general report released on Friday makes one thing increasingly clear: the Bush White House knew that it was probably breaking the law.
From the report itself, John Yoo’s Office of Legal Counsel memo — and the lightning-fast reporting of Spencer Ackerman, Marc Ambinder and others on Friday — we now know that President [...]

NPR’s report this morning that the Brookings Institution’s Benjamin Wittes has proposed what’s expected to be a highly influential plan for “preventive detention” — which could lock up “dangerous” terror suspects potentially forever without charge or trial — gives even more urgency to the question that Spencer raised here more than a month ago.
Will the [...]

Yesterday President Obama announced his intent to establish a system of preventive detention to stop would-be terrorists from “carrying out an act of war” — even when they “cannot be prosecuted for past crimes, in some cases because evidence may be tainted.” One of the most senior officials in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal [...]

CIA Director-designate Leon Panetta clarified his statement yesterday that there may be a class of terrorism detainee who can’t be tried in court, nor transferred to another country nor released. Or, at least he reiterated it.
Some detainees are so dangerous, he said, that “they may not be able to be tried for that reason, [and] [...]

I think the Obama administration is not likely to cede that authority back to the Congress.
– Dick Cheney, Dec. 15, 2008
What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them.
– Barack Obama, Jan. 20, 2009
I was talking with a reporter friend last night about President Barack Obama’s executive orders on [...]