The Recorder
Essential California Legal Content
Originally published May 2, 2012
John Yoo is off the hook.
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| John Yoo |
A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that included two Democratic appointees ruled Wednesday that the former Bush administration lawyer cannot be sued personally for allegedly authorizing the torture and months-long detention of an American citizen deemed an enemy combatant.
The court ruled that 10 years ago, when Yoo was with Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, it was not "beyond debate" that suspected terrorists were entitled to the same constitutional protections as ordinary accused criminals. In fact, the court held, that law remains unsettled to this day.
Thus, Yoo, now a professor at UC-Berkeley School of Law, enjoys qualified immunity from a suit by Jose Padilla, who alleges he was brutalized by the government while being denied access to counsel or his family for 21 months. Although the government dropped the most serious charges against him, Padilla was ultimately convicted in 2007 of conspiring to murder, kidnap and maim people overseas, and was sentenced to 17 years in prison.
The entire story is here.
Thanks to Gary Schoener for this story.
