Executive Branch
Nominee to Head OLC Called Torture Memo ‘Shockingly Flawed’
Posted Jan 6, 2009, 06:18 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
President-elect Obama’s choice to head the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel has been a vocal critic of the Bush administration’s terrorism policies and the legal opinions that authorized them.
The nominee, Indiana University law professor Dawn Johnsen, has called one OLC memo authorizing harsh interrogations of terrorism suspects “shockingly flawed” and driven by “bogus constitutional arguments.”
Johnsen is one of four Justice Department nominees announced yesterday. Another nominee is Harvard law dean Elena Kagan, chosen to be solicitor general. The Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) describes the picks as a “liberal lineup” while the New York Times says the choices suggest “a strong effort to stake out a… Continue reading...
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