Me vs. Yoo in the Philly Inquirer

When the news broke that the Philadelphia Inquirer had awarded a monthly column to torture memo author John Yoo, I vowed that I would challenge each and every one of Yoo's neoconservative blatherings. And so, each month, I've been firing off letters to the editor in response to Yoo's columns.

In his latest column, published on July 5, Yoo cited the recent Supreme Court decision in Ricci v. DeStefano as a decisive victory over judicial empathy in general and Judge Sonia Sotomayor in particular. (Should we even be surprised that someone who jumped through semantic hoops in an effort to justify torture would have some disdain for the concept of empathy?!)

Today, the Inquirer published my response.

Below is the text of my letter, as it appears in today's newspaper, followed by links to the letter and Yoo's column on the Inquirer's website:

John Yoo cites the recent decision in Ricci v. DeStefano as a victory against the kind of judicial empathy that Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor promises to bring to the table, suggesting that Sotomayor might be out of place. He then hails it as a sign that we are entering a post-racial America ("No more quotas," Sunday).

I wish he were right.

The fact is that, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which collects and publishes such statistics, the number of hate groups in the United States grew by a whopping 54 percent from 2000 through 2008.

One need only look at all the recent fuss about Latino immigration, along with the irrational suspicion of anyone who might look Middle Eastern, to realize that a "post-racial" America is still just a pipe dream. And, until we get there, a little more empathy is just what we need.

>> Read my letter on the Inquirer's website.

>> Read Yoo's July 5th column which triggered my response.

Note: The Inquirer keeps its content active only for a limited time.