Unraveling Injustice

[groovedaddy]

The Bush administration’s attacks on the rule of law in the name of fighting terrorism have saddled President Obama and his legal team, starting with Attorney General Eric Holder, with some urgent cleanup work.

Mr. Obama’s early executive orders to prohibit torture, shut secret prisons overseas and direct closure of the detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, within a year were a promising start. The administration also faces urgent deadlines in court cases where President Bush’s lawyers were trying to expand executive power and impose a blanket of secrecy to avoid having to defend indefensible decisions.

The cases give Mr. Obama a chance to show how serious he is about repairing Mr. Bush’s legacy of harm.

The first test comes on Monday in San Francisco, where three judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit are scheduled to hear arguments in a civil case involving kidnapping and torture. The Bush team was using one of its signature legal tactics — stretching the evidentiary rule known as the state secrets privilege — to avoid having the detainees’ claims ever heard.

The five plaintiffs, victims of Mr. Bush’s extraordinary rendition program, were seized and transported to secret American facilities abroad or to countries known for torturing prisoners — on flights organized by a private contractor, Jeppesen Dataplan.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/opinion/05thu1.html?th&emc=th

[crim son]

1. Let us hope that these cases give Obama the incentive he

needs to prosecute the shrub as a criminal. It's not enough to merely "undo" the harm.

[groovedaddy]

2. Amen! n.t