UC Berkeley professor Brad DeLong has written the university's chancellor, asking that fellow professor John Yoo be fired. While Yoo worked in the Office of Legal Counsel during the Bush administration, he provided the president with legal advice that has since been dubbed the "torture memo," essentially giving the president wide latitude in the treatment of prisoners taken during the conduct of the war against terrorism.
I am no legal scholar - far from it - but it seems to me that legal opinions such as the one Woo gave Bush should come from judges and not Justice Department flunkies. I mean, if I had a lawyer write me a letter saying it was ok to kidnap and beat the homeless man who, once a week or so, camps out across the street because I thought he was a threat to my home, that wouldn't make it legal. I would be charged with assault, and the lawyer could be threatened with disbarment.
Yes? No?
