Should "torture memo" author be allowed to instruct law students?

Last week I wrote about the 2003 "torture memo" that the Washington Post had finally obtained and published in full. The memo, as I pointed out, asserted that military interrogators could abuse detainees because Bush's ultimate authority as commander-in-chief trumps any laws that might prohibit such treatment.

In other words, the memo asserted that Bush can have people tortured and get away with it because he is the commander-in-chief.

In other words, the memo asserted that Bush can violate domestic and international laws against torture and get away with it because he is the commander-in-chief.

(Imagine the consequences if Bill Clinton had tried something like that while he was commander-in-chief.)

Anyway, the author of this memo was John Yoo. Yoo is now teaching law at Berkeley.

Yoo used semantic gymnatics to dismiss our obligations under international and domestic law and to clear the way for torture. And now he's teaching the next generation of lawyers.

I find this alarming.

So does the National Lawyers Guild, which has called for Yoo's dismissal.

So does the American Freedom Campaign, which has organized an e-mail drive aimed at Christopher Edley, Jr, Dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law. Says the American Freedom Campaign: "John Yoo should not only be disqualified from ever serving in government again, but he should also be prohibited from spreading his distorted view of the law and the role of lawyers to young law students."

Indeed.

Below is the text of the American Freedom Campaign's pre-written e-mail to Dean Edley (which you can edit if you want before sending):

Dear Dean Edley,

In order to protect the reputation of your institution, I urge you to dismiss Professor John Yoo from your faculty. His demonstrated and fundamental lack of respect for the law makes him an entirely unqualified instructor and mentor for the future legal leaders of this country.

I need not fill you in on the details of his involvement in the development of the Bush administration’s torture policy. Almost single-handedly, he provided the legal justification the administration needed in order to give its interrogators free rein to ignore domestic laws and international treaties.

Although Professor Yoo is a tenured member of your faculty, I believe that his dismissal is entirely justified. This is not a matter of firing someone with unpopular views. This is a situation where a member of your faculty twisted the law in order to sanction what is highly likely to be considered a war crime.

As a strong supporter of the Constitution, I appreciate that every American citizen is entitled to a proper legal defense. Thus, the involvement of a professor in a case where crimes are alleged to have been committed would not give rise to a call for dismissal. But here we have a situation where one of your professors aggressively encouraged illegal behavior before the fact.

John Yoo is a stain on your law school and should be dismissed immediately.

Send this message now: Ask Dean Edley to stop John Yoo from corrupting our next generation of lawyers.

I just did.