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Law Prof: Prosecute John Yoo
Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the Law School at the University of California Irvine, has called for prosecuting John Yoo for a legal opinion. Well, this would only be done once, and for a good cause, of course, so there’s really no down-side to putting one fellow in jail for a brief. As the article quotes the learned Dean:
“How else do we as a society express our outrage? How else do we deter it in the future—except by criminal prosecutions?”
Huh! Great point. I’m coming up short on alternatives. I mean, he’s really on to something here: what is the point of having a legal system if it doesn’t click its heels, crisply salute, and draw up papers because we want to express our outrage?
However. As much as I admire the Dean’s desire to hasten us towards an emotion-based legal system, I am troubled by the suspicion that he has never called for such a thing before, and the first example he chooses is an Asian-American. Don’t get me wrong – prosecute away. I just want to make sure we don’t have a disparate-impact situation.
Published in General
Afterwards I wonder what kind of check we’ll need to cut for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed?
Wait, this guy is from Irvine and he’s never seen a protest?
Or…. oh, horrors!… could he be suggesting that college protesters are not a valid expression of societal outrage?!?
Is he questioning the validity of Protest?
To publish something suggesting such a horrible though-crime, it is a micro-aggression attempt to silence and illigitimitize the Authentic Voice of the People!
I think, Mr. Lileks, that we have found a better First Target for Criminal Prosecution to Display Outrage.
Immediately following Yoo’s Trial (which makes me link of Blue’s Clues), we will put this guy on trial for being an idiot.
And try to follow Richard Epstein without hope of an occasional interruption? For pity’s sake, no!
Come to think of it, though, I’m outraged myself at this suggestion. How will the law satisfy my outrage? Hey wait – what if that means someone could be outraged by my outrage? It could ignite an endless loop! (This could be a script for the next Star Trek movie …)
Hey, it’s Irvine, not Berkeley.
Shortest. Trial. Ever…
Great. This guy apparently thinks that law’s purpose is to be a tool of power, rather than the basis of impartial justice. And he’s the one whose job is to teach new lawyers what the law is all about.
Prosecute James Lileks, the infamous John Yoo apologist, for falsely claiming that John Yoo should not be prosecuted! I’m all for free speech, but nothing is absolute. You can’t yell fire in a crowded theater, after all.
(Did I mention Lileks is anti-science too?)
I seem to remember that Erwin had a bit of trouble getting seated as the Dean at Irvine and he got a lot of help with whatever the problem was from some conservative colleagues. None of them agreed with his political bent which colors every legal analysis he’s ever done and every legal opinion he’s ever penned or voiced. He’s a liberal crank in every respect and he seems to have become the poster “old man” who proves by his example that eccentricities worsen with age.
By Chemerinsky’s logic, we should be able to have Erwin Chemerinsky prosecuted to allow society to express its outrage at Chemerinsky’s attempt to circumvent the protections of the American legal system.
To paraphrase A Man For All Seasons:
Seawriter
It seems to me that most husbands would be prosecuted once a month .. wait, did I write that out loud?
Meanwhile,
The fool in the White House who was given a Nobel prize for nothing and was re-elected on a phony war on women gambit gets no criticism whatsoever for a foreign policy so limp wristed that cooked vegetables fare well in comparison.
Now for the real Nobel winner and the real War on Women.
This outrage, Boko Haram, and everyday tyranny for 1/2 billion Muslim women is of no interest to Erwin Chemerinsky. ISIS beheadings are of no interest to Mr. Chemerinsky.
Sometimes the Law is an Ass.
This time it’s Mr. Chermerinsky that is the Ass.
Regards,
Jim
OK, it sounds bad at first, but if someone is telling us that they found a way to send more lawyers to prison, we might not want to dismiss him too quickly.
As idiotic as this all sounds, there are still two years left in the term of Barack Obama. The people he appoints to positions of power in his regime get progressively worse and progressively more incompetent. We might consider this a joke, but at some level in the upper echelons of the so-called Justice Department, it may not be such. Beware!
Yup, this guy fits right in with Holder Justice Department.
I do believe the Left tried putting John Yoo back during the Bush years, too.
I think the only honorable thing for the professor to do is to challenge Mr. Yoo to a death match in the Thunderdome.
Val,
Really Val I’m surprised. I think John is much more sophisticated than the Thunderdome genre. I was thinking maybe something more like this.
Regards,
Jim
You suppose troy could go in with a mic during visiting hours to record law talk?
Hey I know! Lets get Congress to pass a bill of attainder. I know it is unconstitutional but hey this really important!
I am so outraged by Yoo and the CIA that I am starting a DO NOT PROTECT list. The signers do not want the US Government to protect their property or persons against terrorist acts, knowledge of which was unlawfully obtained.
Those who want the shame of being protected by an immoral government can scurry under that stained shield and not join us on the list but we shall proudly endure what’s coming to us in the certainty that our attackers will be brought to justice with due process, assuming they consent to such process.
This is an emergency. Since the executive branch did not act, it’s time for Congress to use its lawful authority to solve the problem. If and when the President targets the right people, Congress will repeal the law.
Thought experiment: Someone must have advised President Clinton to offer no response to the genocide in Rwanda. Would the Dean support identifying that person and prosecuting him or her?
John Yoo is just so much smarter than this guy, it wouldn’t even be a fair fight so to speak.
If you have ever heard Erwin Chemerinsky’s weekly gig on the Hugh Hewitt show where he’s usually up against Chapman’s John Eastman, you know that he always pivots to take whatever the “progressive” position is or “should be,” no matter how sensible a right-leaning position might be. I gave up listening to anything he has to say long ago because of this. He’s a perfect fit for my hometown UC school, sad to say.
John Yoo? I’m thinking Supreme Court nomination. Black robes would look better on him than an orange jumpsuit . . .
Wait a minuet is that not what almost every single law school teaches and almost every lawyer believes. The law is merely a tool of power to get your way.
UC Irvine, the Harvard of the not.
Basically the 17th grade, no?
I’ve read John Yoo’s memos, and I’ve listened to some of Erwin Chemerinsky’s lectures, and I know which are torture.
Chemerinsky doesn’t need to be sent to prison, folks.
He needs to be sent to a re-education camp.