A New Day Dawning at Justice
posted by Frank Pasquale
As the full measure of lawlessness at the Bush Office of Legal Counsel gets disclosed, many lawyers have anxiously awaited the nomination of a new OLC head capable of repairing the damage. The appointment of Dawn Johnsen is a sign that Obama is serious about righting the ship here. As Prof. Johnsen wrote about the infamous torture memo:
The shockingly flawed content of this memo, the deficient processes that led to its issuance, the horrific acts it encouraged, the fact that it was kept secret for years and that the Bush administration continues to withhold other memos like it–all demand our outrage.
Unlike the legal academy’s many “Professors Strangelove,” Prof. Johnsen had the courage to uphold lasting American values in the face of temporary passions demanding their discarding. Congratulations to her on this well-deserved appointment.
January 5, 2009 at 4:23 pm
Posted in: Civil Rights, Constitutional Law
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Responses (3)
Patrick S. O'Donnell - January 5, 2009 at 4:56 pm
See too the post at InLawGrrls on her appointment: http://intlawgrrls.blogspot.com/2009/01/and-elena-kagan-gets-sg-nod.html
There’s links to posts by and about her at this blog, as well as a link to the important statement she signed: Principles to Guide the Office of Legal Counsel (Dec. 21, 2004).
overwrought - January 5, 2009 at 4:56 pm
By “had the courage to uphold lasting American values,” you mean “wrote a blog post,” right?
I have no reason to doubt that she’ll do a good job at her new post. She did well in law school, had a solid career as a liberal activist lawyer, worked at OLC under the Clinton Administration and is, by all accounts, extremely competent and good at her current job.
But criticizing President Bush during the past 8 years for overreaching was hardly out of fashion, especially not in American academia, especially not by a tenured professor, and especially not last April in the middle of an election season.
I think it shows more courage to trade a job that has “Batman” in its title for one with “Assistant” in it.
Brett Bellmore - January 5, 2009 at 7:48 pm
“Unlike the legal academy’s many “Professors Strangelove,” Prof. Johnsen had the courage to uphold lasting American values in the face of temporary passions demanding their discarding.”
We shall see, as she works for an administration whose passions incline towards discarding a different set of lasting American values than the last administration, but still incline towards discarding some of them.
Or do you suppose she’s going to be enthusiastic about defending the Heller decision?
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