"Having worked
in the White House under two presidents, I am exceptionally sensitive to the
complex, ineffable boundary between policymaking and law-declaring. I know that
Professor Yoo continues to believe his legal reasoning was sound, but I do not
know whether he believes that the Department of Defense and CIA made political
or moral mistakes in the way they exercised the discretion his memoranda
declared available to them within the law. As critical as I am of his analyses,
no argument about what he did or didn't facilitate, or about his special
obligations as an attorney, makes his conduct morally equivalent to that of his
nominal clients, Secretary Rumsfeld, et al., or comparable to the conduct of interrogators
distant in time, rank and place. The law does not criminalize every immoral
act, however, and there is a strong argument that these more direct actors get a 'pass' because they relied on the DOJ memoranda. -- Dean
Christopher Edley, Jr
