Prometheus 6

Terror-War Fallout Lingers Over Bush Lawyers
By CHARLIE SAVAGE and SCOTT SHANE

The notoriety that follows Mr. Yoo — and to varying degrees half a dozen other Bush administration lawyers — raises difficult questions: What is a government lawyer’s responsibility if legal advice he gives turns out to be, in the view of many authorities, grievously flawed? Can he be blamed for damaging, and arguably illegal, acts carried out with his imprimatur? Should he suffer any punishment?

“I think the legal profession in the United States has been seriously hurt by their conduct,” said Stephen Gillers, a professor of legal ethics at New York University. He called the disputed legal opinions “sloppy, one-sided and incompetent” and added, “There has to be accountability.”

What, if anything, should happen to these lawyers — damage to their professional reputations, punishment by state bar associations, perhaps even prosecution at home or abroad — is now the subject of a lively debate in the legal world and beyond.

The question is, should any penalty be legal or social? Damage to their professional reputations is assured. But I don't think that's enough. The opinions made public are so flawed that, if they are typical of the rest, these folk have demonstrated themselve incapable of valid legal reasoning. They should be disbarred nationally. Make them go back through law school and take the bar again if they want to keep practicing.

And that's just the social penalties they deserve. There was a legal coup attempt, and these lawyers were tools to that end. That they tried to overthrow the government through legal means makes it no less treasonous, in my opinion. If, as I fear, the Bushistas avoid a war crimes trial, their tools must suffer such repercussions that no one wants to help in such a coup attempt in the future.