Bush torture ‘architect’ sits on court that will rule on another torture ‘architect’

[unhappycamper]

Bush torture ‘architect’ sits on court that will rule on another torture ‘architect’
By Daniel Tencer
Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 -- 10:31 pm

John Yoo, the former Bush administration lawyer who gained notoriety for penning a number of the so-called "torture memos" justifying the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" on terrorism suspects, has filed an appeal of a lawsuit against him with a court on whose bench sits another torture "architect" from the Bush administration.

Yoo's lawyers have filed an appeal against a lawsuit by convicted terrorist supporter Jose Padilla to the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. One of the judges on that bench is Jay Bybee, who served early on in the Bush administration in the same Office of Legal Counsel where Yoo wrote the torture memos.

Bybee is known for having written the "Bybee memo," which spelled out the definition of "enhanced interrogation techniques" the Bush administration used against terrorism suspects, now abandoned by the Obama Justice Department. Yoo wrote a number of controversial memos regarding torture, including one that declared "enhanced interrogation" only met the legal definition of torture if it caused pain equal to "organ failure, impairment of bodily function or even death."

Both Bybee and Yoo are defendants in a Spanish prosecution of the principal creators of the Bush administration's torture policies.

In their appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court, Yoo's lawyers declared that a lawsuit against him by convicted terrorist supporter Jose Padilla could "open the floodgates to politically motivated lawsuits" against government officials, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Wednesday.


Rest of article at: http://rawstory.com/2009/11/bush-torture-architect-court/

[onenote]

1. has bybee actually been assigned to the case?

Nothing in the article suggest that he has. There are 27 Judges on the Ninth Circuit (and another 20 judges with senior status) Yoo's appeal will be heard by a 3-judge panel.