U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White, chosen for the federal bench by President George W. Bush, ruled on Friday that a lawsuit filed by José Padilla can proceed in federal court. Padilla was detained for more than three years and allegedly tortured for being part of a plot to detonate a “dirty bomb” in the U.S. He was later convicted on different charges stemming from a conspiracy to help finance Islamic extremist groups.

 

Marking the first time a government lawyer has been held potentially responsible for the abuse of detainees, White’s ruling stated that “government lawyers are responsible for the foreseeable consequences of their conduct.” White rejected arguments by the Obama administration that the courts had no power to scrutinize high-level government decision-making, especially in wartime. The Justice Department is expected to appeal the ruling.

 

Yoo, now a University of California Berkeley law professor, wrote numerous legal memos to justify the CIA’s use of harsh interrogation methods on al-Qaeda members and others detained by the U.S. government as part of its “war on terror.”

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Judge: Ex-Bush Lawyer Can be Sued Over Torture (by Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle)

Secret Bush Memos Released…And the Ones Still Hidden (by Aaron Wallechinsky, AllGov)

Torture Enthusiast Escapes Berkeley (AllGov)