Of all the appointments so far by the Obama team, I’d have to rank Steven Chu for Energy Secretary as my favorite.  But a close second is now Dawn Johnsen as head of the OLC.  That’s right.  OLC.  As in, Office of Legal Counsel.

The OLC is responsible for providing legal opinions for the executive branch to determine legal courses of action for executive policies.  It was from this official perch that John Yoo issued his infamous torture memo, something that intelligence agencies called the “golden shield“, because of its amazingly far-reaching conclusions on the legality of virtually every interrogation technique.  It is also from here that memos were released justifying President Bush’s use of warantless surveillance.  Basically, if the OLC says it’s legal, then the executive branch does it, which is what makes the OLC such a dangerous institution.

For this reason, it is important to appoint strong-willed and talented lawyers to this office.  You basically need independent minds that will tell you no, not charlatans who craft ridiculously flawed memos to back whatever David Addington asks for.  This is why Dawn Johnsen is an awesome choice.  Here she is on the torture memo:

The shockingly flawed content of this memo, the deficient processes that led to its issuance, the horrific acts it encouraged, the fact that it was kept secret for years and that the Bush administration continues to withhold other memos like it–all demand our outrage.

Yes, we’ve seen much of it before. And yes, we are counting down the remaining months. But we must regain our ability to feel outrage whenever our government acts lawlessly and devises bogus constitutional arguments for outlandishly expansive presidential power. Otherwise, our own deep cynicism, about the possibility for a President and presidential lawyers to respect legal constraints, itself will threaten the rule of law–and not just for the remaining nine months of this administration, but for years and administrations to come.

OLC, the office entrusted with making sure the President obeys the law instead here told the President that in fighting the war on terror, he is not bound by the laws Congress has enacted. That Congress lacks the authority to regulate the interrogation and treatment of enemy combatants. . . .

John Yoo, the memo’s author, has the gall to continue to defend the legal reasoning in this memo, in the face even of Bush administration OLC head Jack Goldsmith’s harsh criticism–and withdrawal–of the memo. Not only that, Yoo attempts to spin the memo’s advice on presidential power as “near boilerplate” . . .

I know (many of us know) Yoo’s statement to be false. And not merely false, but irresponsibly and dangerously false in a way that impugns OLC’s integrity over time and threatens to undermine public faith in the possibility that any administration can be expected to adhere to the rule of law.

And here she is in October 2007:

This is a perfect choice in order restore credibility to a completely damaged institution.

Btw, I’m about 4/5 done with The Dark Side by Jane Mayer, and it’s truly disturbing.  I should have a book review ready soon, and a significant protion of it will focus on who, in my opinion, were the most dangerous men in government: John Yoo, Jay Bybee, and, most of all, David Addington.

Tags: Dawn Johnsen, OLC

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 at 12:20 am and is filed under Some Pulp. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.