Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) is forwarding information on Yoo and Bybee to their respective state bar associations requesting disbarment for the disgusting torture memos they wrote.
They recently got nothing more than a slap on the wrist for these memos.
Nadler said he was "disappointed that, at the end of this lengthy process, we are now left with apparent confusion within the Department of Justice regarding the appropriate standards of conduct for its attorneys."
Nobody is really sure if these bar associations will be willing to address these issues, but they should. People get investigated for possible disbarment for doing far less - and for things that are actually helpful to keep America's safety and values.
Yoo recently graced the pages of the WSJ in his own defense, and he put forward the argument that he actually helped President Obama:
Barack Obama may not realize it, but I may have just helped save his presidency. How? By winning a drawn-out fight to protect his powers as commander in chief to wage war and keep Americans safe.
Yes that would be the John Yoo who wrote this:
Legal opinions written by Yoo in 2002 and signed by Bybee cleared the way for the Bush administration to subject detainees to the near drowning of waterboarding and other brutal treatment at the hands of CIA interrogators.
[...]
Further, Yoo asserted that Bush’s presidential powers were virtually unlimited in wartime, even a conflict as vaguely defined as the "war on terror."
[...]
"What about ordering a village of [resistance] to be massacred?" an OPR investigator asked Yoo. "Is that a power that the president could legally—"
"Yeah," Yoo said. "Although, let me say this: So, certainly, that would fall within the commander-in-chief's power over tactical decisions."
"To order a village of civilians to be [exterminated]?" the questioner replied.
"Sure," Yoo said.
Remember that the OPR report, before it was softened, originally asked for disbarment:
Even so, in the final report OPR concluded that Yoo and Bybee should be referred for discipline under the OPR framework. At which point Margolis slams OPR because "its misconduct findings do not identify a violation of a specific bar rule"—although, in fact, OPR cites the same rule its earlier drafts accused Bybee and Yoo of violating. In a catch-22, Margolis faults OPR for switching to the framework he insists is the proper one.
They wimped out, of course, and Yoo and Bybee got the equivalent of a stranger telling them "Dude that was pretty harsh."
Bybee is still a federal judge, interpreting laws and providing rationalizations and background facts for the upholding or dismissing of precedent.
At a time when even the Democratic House pulls provisions banning torture out of a bill because they were too mean to the torturers, it's good that Nadler is at least concerned about the rule of law.