Keeping America in the Dark

Keeping America in the Dark
By Benjamin Davis of the University of Toledo College of Law | Jurist
JURIST Guest Columnist Benjamin Davis of the University of Toledo College of Law says a recent effort by a conservative advocacy website to besmirsch the reputations of current DOJ lawyers who previously represented detainees should not distract the US government from criminally prosecuting DOJ lawyers from the past administration who made torture possible....

I recently came across an effort by a group calling itself Keep America Safe to pressure DOJ lawyers who once represented detainees by outing them as the “Al Qaeda 9”. This new twist smacks of the “Cully” Stimson's effort in the last administration to “pressure” law firms that had lawyers working pro bono for the defense on those cases. After an uproar, Stimson resigned.

Keep America Safe and its surrogates appear to be conducting a thinly veiled effort to question the patriotism of those lawyers who represented detainees in resisting violations of the Geneva Conventions and bringing to light, in FOIA requests and litigation, the torture in the prior administration.

This kind of chilling effect on dissent from outrageous policy is nothing new under the sun. Its natural impact is to attempt to intimidate both those who take on these cases and those who would hire such people after they take on these cases, especially those entering the government to serve the public trust. Too much “controversy” about them. Read more.