Does John Yoo belong in front of a class? No: His work for the Bush admin suggests he's incompetent

[babylonsister]

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-rosenthal9-2009apr09,0,592367.story

Does John Yoo belong in front of a class?
No: His work for the Bush administration suggests he's incompetent
The controversial 'torture' memo and others reflect tunnel vision that would not be acceptable in a student, never mind a teacher of law.

By Lawrence Rosenthal
April 9, 2009


John Yoo is a professor of law at UC Berkeley. This semester, he is my colleague -- as a visiting professor -- at Chapman University's School of Law.

Yoo is also under investigation by the Justice Department's inspector general for his role in producing a number of controversial memorandums during his service in the department during the Bush administration. The memos include one stating that the president may authorize the torture of suspected terrorists.

I am a former federal prosecutor. Naturally, I have enormous concerns about any investigation of an attorney for providing legal advice to a client, especially when the client is the U.S. government. I am equally reluctant to voice harsh criticism of a colleague -- collegiality is greatly valued in academia. Yet the first obligation of the legal academy must be to its students. For that reason, I think it right to ask: Should Yoo be teaching law?

The so-called torture memorandum has drawn the most fire. The distinguished scholar Jeremy Waldron called the memorandum "a disgrace." Harold Koh, dean of Yale Law School, called the memo "perhaps the most clearly erroneous legal opinion I have ever read." I cannot add much to what has been written about the memo.

snip//

I do not know all the facts relating to Yoo's involvement in the memos that cause me concern. I hope the Justice Department will release its findings. At that point, a more complete assessment of Yoo's work will be possible. While I yield to no one in my respect for academic freedom, the memos reflect a kind of tunnel vision that I would not tolerate in a student's work and certainly not in the work of an attorney for our government.

Should incompetent or irresponsible lawyers be teaching law? As Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once wrote: "The question answers itself."

Lawrence Rosenthal is a professor of law at Chapman University School of Law in Orange.

[Webster Green]

1. He belongs in prison!

The sooner the better! :mad:

[Klukie]

2. This is the way to go......

If they can't be held accountable by the government for the laws they broke, then going after them in the private sector is exactly what is in order. Why should these incompetent bastards be allowed to profit on their so-called expertise when they are clearly inept? They need a little public ridicule to run them out of town.

[babylonsister]

3. 'Run them out of town' and overseas, where they might possibly

be arrested. Win-win!