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War and the Constitutional Text John C
War and the Constitutional Text John C. Yoo∗ In a series of articles, I have criticized the view that the original under- standing of the Constitution requires that Congress provide its authorization before the United States can engage in military hostilities.1 This “pro- Congress” position ignores the constitutional text and structure, errs in in- terpreting the ratification history of the Constitution, and cannot account for the practice of the three branches of government. Instead of the rigid proc- ess advocated by scholars such as Louis Henkin, John Hart Ely, Louis Fisher, Michael Glennon, and Harold Koh,2 I have argued that the Constitu- tion creates a flexible system of war powers. That system provides the president with significant initiative as commander-in-chief, while reserving to Congress ample authority to check executive policy through its power of the purse. In this scheme, the Declare War Clause confers on Congress a ju- ridical power, one that both defines the state of international legal relations ∗ Professor of Law, University of California at Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall) (on leave); Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, United States Department of Justice. The views expressed here are those of the author alone and do not represent the views of the Department of Justice. I express my deep appreciation for the advice and assistance of James C. Ho in preparing this response. Robert Delahunty, Jack Goldsmith, and Sai Prakash provided helpful comments on the draft. 1 See John C. Yoo, Kosovo, War Powers, and the Multilateral Future, 148 U Pa L Rev 1673, 1686–1704 (2000) (discussing the original understanding of war powers in the context of the Kosovo conflict); John C. -
EPIC's Amicus Brief
13-0422-cv(L), 13-0445-cv(CON) UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT THE NEW YORK TIMES COMPANY, CHARLIE SAVAGE, SCOTT SHANE, AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION, AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION FOUNDATION, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY, Defendants-Appellees. ON APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK BRIEF OF AMICI CURIAE ELECTRONIC PRIVACY INFORMATION CENTER AND SEVEN OPEN GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS IN SUPPORT OF APPELLANTS AND URGING REVERSAL Marc Rotenberg Counsel of Record Alan Butler Ginger McCall David Brody Julia Horwitz Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) 1718 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 200 Washington, DC 20009 (202) 483-1140 [email protected] April 22, 2013 CORPORATE DISCLOSURE STATEMENT Pursuant to Fed. R. App. P. 26.1 and 29(c) for Case No. 13-422 amicus curiae Electronic Privacy Information Center (“EPIC”) states that it is a District of Columbia corporation with no parent corporation or publicly-held company with a 10 percent or greater ownership interest. EPIC is a non-profit, non-partisan corporation, organized under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law (“Brennan Center”) does not have a parent company, and is not a publicly-held company with a 10 percent or greater ownership interest. The Brennan Center is a non-profit, non-partisan corporation, organized under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (“CREW”) does not have a parent company, and is not a publicly-held company with a 10 percent or greater ownership interest. -
Freedom of Information Act Activity for the Weeks of December 29, 2016-January 4, 2017 Privacy Office January 10, 2017 Weekly Freedom of Information Act Report
Freedom of Information Act Activity for the Weeks of December 29, 2016-January 4, 2017 Privacy Office January 10, 2017 Weekly Freedom of Information Act Report I. Efficiency and Transparency—Steps taken to increase transparency and make forms and processes used by the general public more user-friendly, particularly web- based and Freedom of Information Act related items: • NSTR II. On Freedom of Information Act Requests • On December 30, 2016, Bradley Moss, a representative with the James Madison Project in Washington D.C, requested from Department of Homeland Security (DI-IS) Secret Service records, including cross-references, memorializing written communications — including USSS documentation summarizing verbal communications —between USSS and the transition campaign staff, corporate staff, or private staff of President-Elect Donald J. Trump. (Case Number HQ 2017-HQF0-00202.) • On December 30, 2016, Justin McCarthy, a representative with Judicial Watch in Washington, D.C., requested from United States Secret Service (USSS) records concerning the use of U.S. Government funds to provide security for President Obama's November 2016 trip to Florida. (Case Number USSS 20170407.) • On January 3,2017, Justin McCarthy, a representative with Judicial Watch in Washington, DE, requested from United States Secret Service (USSS) records concerning, regarding, or relating to security expenses for President Barack °ham's residence in Chicago, Illinois from January 20, 2009 to January 3,2017. (Case Number USSS 20170417.) • On January 3,2017, Justin McCarthy, a representative with Judicial Watch in Washington, D.C., requested from United States Secret Service (USSS) records concerning, regarding. or relating to security expenses for President-Elect Donald Trump and Trump Tower in New York, New York from November 9,2016 to January 3,2017. -
Chapman Law Review
Chapman Law Review Volume 21 Board of Editors 2017–2018 Executive Board Editor-in-Chief LAUREN K. FITZPATRICK Managing Editor RYAN W. COOPER Senior Articles Editors Production Editor SUNEETA H. ISRANI MARISSA N. HAMILTON TAYLOR A. KENDZIERSKI CLARE M. WERNET Senior Notes & Comments Editor TAYLOR B. BROWN Senior Symposium Editor CINDY PARK Senior Submissions & Online Editor ALBERTO WILCHES –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Articles Editors ASHLEY C. ANDERSON KRISTEN N. KOVACICH ARLENE GALARZA STEVEN L. RIMMER NATALIE M. GAONA AMANDA M. SHAUGHNESSY-FORD ANAM A. JAVED DAMION M. YOUNG __________________________________________________________________ Staff Editors RAYMOND AUBELE AMY N. HUDACK JAMIE L. RICE CARLOS BACIO MEGAN A. LEE JAMIE L. TRAXLER HOPE C. BLAIN DANTE P. LOGIE BRANDON R. SALVATIERRA GEORGE E. BRIETIGAM DRAKE A. MIRSCH HANNAH B. STETSON KATHERINE A. BURGESS MARLENA MLYNARSKA SYDNEY L. WEST KYLEY S. CHELWICK NICHOLE N. MOVASSAGHI Faculty Advisor CELESTINE MCCONVILLE, Professor of Law CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY HAZEM H. CHEHABI ADMINISTRATION JEROME W. CWIERTNIA DALE E. FOWLER ’58 DANIELE C. STRUPPA BARRY GOLDFARB President STAN HARRELSON GAVIN S. HERBERT,JR. GLENN M. PFEIFFER WILLIAM K. HOOD Provost and Executive Vice ANDY HOROWITZ President for Academic Affairs MARK CHAPIN JOHNSON ’05 JENNIFER L. KELLER HAROLD W. HEWITT,JR. THOMAS E. MALLOY Executive Vice President and Chief SEBASTIAN PAUL MUSCO Operating Officer RICHARD MUTH (MBA ’05) JAMES J. PETERSON SHERYL A. BOURGEOIS HARRY S. RINKER Executive Vice President for JAMES B. ROSZAK University Advancement THE HONORABLE LORETTA SANCHEZ ’82 HELEN NORRIS MOHINDAR S. SANDHU Vice President and Chief RONALD M. SIMON Information Officer RONALD E. SODERLING KAREN R. WILKINSON ’69 THOMAS C. PIECHOTA DAVID W. -
Bruce Ackerman
BOOK REVIEW CONSTITUTIONAL ALARMISM THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC. By Bruce Ackerman. Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. 2010. Pp. 270. $25.95. Reviewed by Trevor W. Morrison∗ INTRODUCTION The Decline and Fall of the American Republic is a call to action. Professor Bruce Ackerman opens the book with the claim that “some- thing is seriously wrong — very seriously wrong — with the tradition of government that we have inherited” (p. 3). The problem, he says, is the modern American presidency, which he portrays as recently trans- formed into “an especially dangerous office” (p. 189 n.1) posing “a se- rious threat to our constitutional tradition” (p. 4). Ackerman urges us to confront this “potential for catastrophic decline — and act before it is too late” (p. 11). Concerns of this kind are not new. Indeed, in some respects De- cline and Fall reads as a sequel to Professor Arthur Schlesinger’s 1973 classic, The Imperial Presidency.1 Ackerman writes consciously in that tradition, but with a sense of renewed urgency driven by a convic- tion that “the presidency has become far more dangerous today” than in Schlesinger’s time (p. 188). The sources and mechanisms of that purported danger are numerous; Decline and Fall sweeps across jour- nalism, national opinion polls, the Electoral College, civilian-military relations, presidential control of the bureaucracy, and executive branch lawyering to contend that “the foundations of our own republic are eroding before our very eyes” (p. 188). ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– ∗ Professor of Law, Columbia University. For helpful comments on earlier drafts, I thank Akhil Amar, David Barron, Ariela Dubler, Jack Goldsmith, Marty Lederman, Peter Margulies, Gillian Metzger, Henry Monaghan, Rick Pildes, Jeff Powell, John Witt, and participants in faculty workshops at Vanderbilt University and the University of Washington. -
Torture and the Office of Legal Counsel in the Bush Administration: Hearing Before the Subcomm
Georgetown University Law Center Scholarship @ GEORGETOWN LAW 2009 What Went Wrong: Torture and the Office of Legal Counsel in the Bush Administration: Hearing Before the Subcomm. on Administrative Oversight and the Courts of the S. Comm. on the Judiciary, 111th Cong., May 13, 2009 (Statement of David Luban, Prof. of Law, Geo. U. L. Center) David Luban Georgetown University Law Center, [email protected] This paper can be downloaded free of charge from: http://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/cong/42 This open-access article is brought to you by the Georgetown Law Library. Posted with permission of the author. Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/cong Part of the Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons, and the Military, War and Peace Commons Testimony of David Luban Professor, Georgetown University Law Center Hearing: What Went Wrong: Torture and the Office of Legal Counsel in the Bush Administration May 13, 2009 U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts Chairman Whitehouse and members of the subcommittee. Thank you for inviting me to testify today. You've asked me to talk about the legal ethics of the interrogation memos written by lawyers in the Office of Legal Counsel. Based on the publicly- available sources I've studied, I believe that the memos are an ethical train wreck. When a lawyer advises a client about what the law requires, there is one basic ethical obligation: to tell it straight, without slanting or skewing. That can be a hard thing to do, if the legal answer isn't the one the client wants. -
A Call for Institutional Reform of the Office of Legal Counsel
\\server05\productn\H\HLP\4-1\HLP102.txt unknown Seq: 1 11-FEB-10 17:43 A Call for Institutional Reform of the Office of Legal Counsel Bradley Lipton* INTRODUCTION The Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) has been deemed “the most impor- tant government office you’ve never heard of” by Newsweek magazine.1 In- deed, the office is extraordinarily powerful, standing as the legal arbiter of what the executive branch can and cannot do. With great power, so the saying goes, comes great responsibility—to fairly and forthrightly interpret the law, to hold the government back when it risks overreaching, and to settle disputes with an even hand. Yet during the Administration of George W. Bush, OLC let partisan political interests and ideology interfere with its function as fair-minded authority. As a result, the office has sanctioned— and the executive branch has pursued—legally unsound policies. This con- duct most prominently entered the public consciousness in two incidents: the sanctioning of torture by U.S. military forces2 and the politicization of hiring at the Department of Justice.3 The nomination of OLC head Dawn Johnsen has also recently prompted controversy.4 This Essay explains what went wrong in the Office of Legal Counsel during the Bush Administration and suggests institutional reform to prevent such problems in the future. I begin by showing how OLC’s conduct vio- lated widely held norms within the legal community. Though many observ- ers have focused on OLC’s actions authorizing torture, this Essay contends, on the basis of more recently released documents, that the office’s role per- mitting warrantless wiretapping within the United States was a unique viola- tion of lawyerly values. -
An Open Letter on the Question of Torture
1 Torture, Aggressive War & Presidential Power: Thoughts on the Current Constitutional Crisisi Thomas Ehrlich Reifer October 2009 Abstract: This chapter analyses the intersection of torture, aggressive war and Presidential power in the 21st century, with particular attention to the current Constitutional crisis and related international humanitarian/human rights law, including treaties signed and ratified by the U.S., from the Geneva Conventions to the U.N. Convention Against Torture. America's embrace of a ªliberal culture of tortureº af1ter 9/11 is examined, as well as the road leading from Bagram Air Base to Guantanamo to Abu Ghraib. Prospects for change are also analyzed, in light of revelations about the role of both the Democrats and Republicans in policies of torture, extraordinary rendition and aggressive war, past and present. For Sister Dianna "Why is there this inability to reckon with the moral and spiritual facts?"ii ªThe abuse of detainees in U.S. custody cannot simply be attributed to the actions of `a few bad apples' acting on their own. The fact is that senior officials in the United States government solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques, redefined the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authorized their use against detainees.ºiii 2009 initially brought sharp relief to torture abolitionists in the U.S. and around the world, as President Obama, in his first week in office, signed three executive orders 1) closing Guantanamo in a year 2) creating a task force to examine policies towards prisoners caught up in the ªwar on terrorº and 3) mandating lawful interrogations in compliance with the Army Field Manual and thus international agreements. -
Indirect Constraints on the Office of Legal Counsel: Examining a Role for the Senate Judiciary Committee
Stanford Law Review Volume 73 June 2021 NOTE Indirect Constraints on the Office of Legal Counsel: Examining a Role for the Senate Judiciary Committee William S. Janover* Abstract. As arbiter of the constitutionality of executive actions, the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) possesses vast authority over the operation of the federal government and is one of the primary vessels for the articulation of executive power. It therefore is not surprising that the OLC has found itself at the center of controversy across Democratic and Republican administrations. OLC opinions have justified the obstruction of valid congressional investigations, the targeted killing of an American citizen overseas, repeated military incursions without congressional approval, and, most infamously, torture. These episodes have generated a significant body of proposals to reform, constrain, or altogether eliminate the OLC. All of these proposals can be categorized as either direct or indirect constraints on how the OLC operates. Direct constraints target how the OLC actually creates its legal work product. Indirect constraints instead focus on the OLC’s personnel or the public scrutiny the Office’s opinions will face. This Note expands on this existing body of research, focusing on how one institution unstudied in this context, the United States Senate Judiciary Committee, can operationalize meaningful indirect constraints on the OLC. Unlike the other actors that scholars have examined, the Committee’s position outside the executive branch allows it to sidestep the President’s ever-expanding reach within the federal bureaucracy. At the same time, the Committee’s oversight powers and its central role in the nomination of both the OLC’s leader and Article III judges give it important constitutional and statutory authority to constrain the Office. -
DOJ Information Technology Strategic Plan 2010-2015
DOJ IT Strategic Plan Appendix E: DOJ COMPONENTS LIST DOJ Components include the following organizations: Antitrust Division (ATR) Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) Office of Dispute Resolution (ODR) Civil Division (CIV) Office of the Federal Detention Trustee (OFDT) Civil Rights Division (CRT) Office of Information and Privacy (OIP) Criminal Division (CRM) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) Community Relations Service (CRS) Office of Intergovernmental and Public Liaison (OIPL) Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Office of Justice Programs (OJP) Environment and Natural Resources Division Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) (ENRD) Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) Office of Legal Policy (OLP) Executive Office for United States Attorneys Office of Legislative Affairs (OLA) (EOUSA) Executive Office for United States Trustees Office of the Pardon Attorney (OPA) (EOUST) Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Office of Public Affairs (PAO) Federal Prison Industries (UNICOR) Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) Foreign Claims Settlement Commission (FCSC) Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) INTERPOL ‐ United States National Central Professional Responsibility Advisory Office Bureau (USNCB) (PRAO) Justice Management Division (JMD) Tax Division (TAX) National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) United States Marshals Service (USMS) National Institute of Corrections United States Parole Commission (USPC) National Security Division (NSD) The FY2009 DOJ IT Budget of $2.8 billion is allocated by component as follows: U.S. Department of Justice 12/9/2009 Office of the Chief Information Officer 41 DOJ IT Strategic Plan Source: FY2009 DOJ IT Exhibit 53 U.S. Department of Justice 12/9/2009 Office of the Chief Information Officer 42 . -
The Office of Legal Counsel and Torture: the Law As Both a Sword and Shield
Note The Office of Legal Counsel and Torture: The Law as Both a Sword and Shield Ross L. Weiner* And let me just add one thing. And this is a stark contrast here because we are nation [sic] of laws, and we are a nation of values. The terrorists follow no rules. They follow no laws. We will wage and win this war on terrorism and defeat the terrorists. And we will do so in a way that’s consistent with our values and our laws, and consistent with the direction the President laid out.1 —Scott McClellan, Spokesman to President George W. Bush, June 22, 2004 * J.D., expected May 2009, The George Washington University Law School; B.A., 2004, Colgate University. I would like to thank Kimberly L. Sikora Panza and Charlie Pollack for reading early drafts and guiding me on my way. I am indebted to the editors of The George Washington Law Review for all of their thoroughness and dedication in preparing this Note for publication. Finally, thank you to my parents, Tammy and Marc Levine, and Howard and Patti Weiner, for all their hard work. 1 Press Briefing, White House Counsel Judge Alberto Gonzales, Dep’t of Defense (“DoD”) Gen. Counsel William Haynes, DoD Deputy Gen. Counsel Daniel Dell’Orto, and Army Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence Gen. Keith Alexander (June 22, 2004) [hereinafter Press Briefing], available at http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2004/06/ 20040622-14.html. February 2009 Vol. 77 No. 2 524 2009] The Law as Both a Sword and a Shield 525 Introduction On September 11, 2001, nineteen men, each a member of al- Qaeda,2 hijacked and crashed four airplanes, killing nearly 3,000 Americans. -
The Torture Memos: the Conflict Between a Shift in U.S
Hofstra Law Review Volume 33 | Issue 3 Article 6 2005 The orT ture Memos: The onflicC t Between a Shift in U.S. Policy Towards a Condemnation of Human Rights and International Prohibitions Against the Use of Torture Jonathan Canfield Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarlycommons.law.hofstra.edu/hlr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Canfield, Jonathan (2005) "The orT ture Memos: The onflC ict Between a Shift in .SU . Policy Towards a Condemnation of Human Rights and International Prohibitions Against the Use of Torture," Hofstra Law Review: Vol. 33: Iss. 3, Article 6. Available at: http://scholarlycommons.law.hofstra.edu/hlr/vol33/iss3/6 This document is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarly Commons at Hofstra Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Hofstra Law Review by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Commons at Hofstra Law. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Canfield: The Torture Memos: The Conflict Between a Shift in U.S. Policy To NOTE THE TORTURE MEMOS: THE CONFLICT BETWEEN A SHIFT IN U.S. POLICY TOWARDS A CONDEMNATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNATIONAL PROHIBITIONS AGAINST THE USE OF TORTURE [In the United States, the use of torture] is categorically denounced as a matter ofpolicy and as a tool of state authority.... No official of the government,federal, state or local, civilian or military, is authorized to commit or to instruct anyone else to commit torture. Nor may any official condone or tolerate torture in any form.... No exceptional circumstances may be invoked as a justification of torture.