This administration has simply GOT to GO.

[acroyear]

posted as-is:

Dispatches from the Culture Wars: Bush Administration Pressures Law Firms on Gitmo:

Bush Administration Pressures Law Firms on Gitmo

Category:
Posted on: January 15, 2007 9:34 AM, by Ed Brayton

I agree completely with Eugene Volokh that the recent statements from deputy assistant secretary of defense of detainee affairs Cully Stimson suggesting boycotts of law firms that defend Guantanamo detainees are appalling and unconscionable. Stimson said:

Stimson listed the names of more than a dozen major firms he suggested should be boycotted.

"And I think, quite honestly, when corporate CEOs see that those firms are representing the very terrorists who hit their bottom line back in 2001, those CEOs are going to make those law firms choose between representing terrorists or representing reputable firms," Stimson said.

Here is what Volokh had to say:

The detainees' lawyers are, in court, the government's adversaries. But the premise of our legal system is that you can be the adversary and not the enemy, and that in fact your representation can help the legal system run by the very same government that you are opposing.

It strikes me as especially wrong for the government to try to drum up financial pressure that would deter lawyers from playing this role. Again, the premise of our legal system is that the courts, and not just litigants, are benefited from quality legal advocacy. If the government frightens away lawyers who are on the other side, it will get an unfair advantage in the judicial process, shortchange the judiciary, and (when it comes to decisions that set precedents) potentially yield legal rules that will give too little protection for the rest of us, and not just the Guantanamo detainees.

Mr. Stimson should resign. Immediately. His attempts to hinder the legal process and squash the right to legal representation for Gitmo detainees is par for the course for this administration, which really does seem to believe that as long as they say someone is a bad guy, everyone else has to believe them or they're "siding with the terrorists." Our system doesn't work that way. The burden is on the govern

You know, if this example is typical of how this administration is "defending America", then maybe "America" simply isn't worth defending anymore. They really are going to the most rediculous extremes to save this country by destroying it, legally, constitutionally, economically, and environmentally.