Why Bush won’t fire Torture Alum
ø
 Former U.S. RepresentativeElizabeth Hottzman [Wikipedia] |
Radcliffe and Harvard Law School Alum1 Elizabeth Holtzman2 has an article in the Los Angeles Times, Alberto Gonzales’ safety net. In June of 2005, the Nation published her article Torture and Accountability, in which she describes Gonzales’ role in helping Bush evade the War Crimes Act of 1996. The Wikipedia account goes on to observe, “The adoption of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, by rewriting the War Crimes Act, appears to immunize the Bush administration and others against possible legal challenges regarding war crimes,3“ |
In Pushing Back on Detainee Act, President of the Center for Constitutional Rights, Michael Ratner, describes the devastating experience of he and his colleagues lobbying against the death of Habeas Corpus. He is confident that it will be overturned in the courts – in perhaps a year.
For those who missed it, the Military Commissions Act was signed the day after Michael Chertoff visited his alma mater, Havard Law School. I wonder what our Law faculty told him to pass along to the prez. I wonder who, if anyone, from Harvard Law went with Michael Ratner to Congress. Much as I like the color orange, they also serve who take names and ask questions in class. And if they hide behind big furniture, try outside.
1I miss the mild pedantry of knowing no Latin except genger inflection and the odd plural. For readers of an earler edition, genger infliction is when I ask a woman for a date.
2She really is from Brooklyn. Dean Elena went to Hunter College High School which is in Manhattan. If I got it wrong I’m blaming the Alumni Office for failing to correct me.
3Two references are provided:
- Micheal Ratner, Pushing Back on Detainee Act, The Nation, October 4, 2006 (web only). He also co-hosts Law and Disorder Radio.
- Michael C. Dorf, Why The Military Commissions Act is No Moderate Compromise, Findlaw an open-source-alike website.
