"Justice Blogging". Nice writeup about Obama Picks -Johnsen, Barron, Lederman

[chill_wind]

Justice Blogging
How an Online Hobby Could Mean a New Era at the Justice Department
By Kate Klonick 2/2/09 3:47 PM

President Obama’s twelve nominations to the Justice Department have plenty in common. Almost all of the appointees are alums of either President Clinton’s Justice Department, Harvard Law School or both. Among them, three share a particularly interesting hobby that could signal a change in the agency — they blog.

The three appointees will serve in the Office of Legal Counsel, the under-heralded but far-reaching office tasked with giving legal advice to the president and drafting opinions for the attorney general. This division has been criticized for entwining politics and the law under the Bush administration, particularly by Jay Bybee, the former assistant attorney general and John Yoo, former deputy assistant attorney general. During his tenure as head of the OLC, Bybee issued a then-confidential memo, written chiefly by Yoo, authorizing the used of enhanced interrogation techniques on detainees. The controversial opinion, commonly called the Bybee memo, was shredded by legal scholars for its weak factual and legal foundation. It came to symbolize the political agenda and secrecy that had consumed the Office of Legal Counsel.
Illustration by: Matt Mahurin


But it looks like all that could change
.

article: http://washingtonindependent.com/28551/justice-blogging

[chill_wind]

1. "Thou Shalt Not Blog" (Slate)

"Thou Shalt Not Blog

Obama's OLC nominee discovers the perils of "blogging, advocating, and speeching."
By Dahlia LithwickPosted Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009, at 7:45 PM ET

Dawn Johnsen.Dawn JohnsenAt her Senate judiciary committee hearing this afternoon, Dawn Johnsen must show why she is fit to be head of the Office of Legal Counsel, the supersecret government office tasked with advising the executive branch on the law. And professor Johnsen is repeatedly scolded for her tarnished history as an "advocate." In the weeks since she was nominated for this job, she has been tarred on the far right as an abortion-loving, terrorist-coddling nut job, despite unimpeachable legal credentials and bipartisan support. The diminutive university professor, mother of two, and Methodist Sunday-school teacher speaks in tones just this side of "whispery." And with armies of cousins, aunts, and preteen sons arrayed beyond her today, it's tough to see her as anybody's zealot. Still, Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., accuses her outright of "blogging, advocating, and speeching for the opposite side."

more on yesterday's proceedings-- Slate tongue in cheek:

http://www.slate.com/id/2212228/