Yoo to appeal ruling that greenlit torture lawsuit

[Newsjock]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Former Bush administration lawyer John Yoo will appeal a federal judge's ruling that allowed a prisoner to sue him for devising the legal theories that led to his alleged torture, Yoo's attorneys said today.

President Obama's Justice Department, which represented Yoo in unsuccessfully seeking dismissal of the suit, filed a notice saying he would ask the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to intervene in the case. Department attorneys also said they were dropping out of the case and that Yoo was now represented by a private lawyer, not identified in the court document.

... The suit was filed by Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen now serving a 17-year prison sentence after being convicted of conspiring to provide money and supplies to Islamic extremist groups.

... Obama administration lawyers argued that courts had no power to scrutinize a lawyer's advice that was part of high-level government decision-making.

But U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White of San Francisco ruled June 12 that Padilla could try to prove that Yoo had stepped outside of a lawyer's role and become an architect of a policy that violated his rights.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/13/BAD618NVIS.DTL&tsp=1

[jgraz]

1. I'm not appealing any ruling

Third Base!!

[ShamelessHussy]

2. if you can not even sue those who authorized your torture anymore what kinda third rate despots

will we have become? At least some judges appear to be reluctant to head down that path, hopefully the appeals and SCOTUS feel the same way, too.

[DallasNE]

3. As I See It, John Yoo Has A Choice

He can take his chances in criminal court (are you listening Mr. AG) where the outcome if found guilty would be a prison term or he can take his chance in civil court where he could lose millions of dollars. And it is a pickle of his own making.

[Piewhacket]

4. Why not both?

[Solly Mack]

5. K&R