Scott Horton over at Harper's reports that the Obama DOJ has filed a brief on behalf of John Yoo in Padilla v Yoo. According to Horton, the brief argues that there are only 3 basic routes by which a lawyer at the DOJ can be held accountable for his official actions. All three routes depend, in essence, on the authority of the DOJ itself, which means that the DOJ is crimainally liable if and only if it finds itself to be so. Needless to say, this is an exceedingly low standard given any institution's inclination to protect itself.
Horton concludes:
The Holder Justice Department’s brief can only be squared with prior DOJ arguments this way: foreign lawyers in foreign Justice Departments have no immunity and can be held accountable, but lawyers who work for us have absolute immunity from any meaningful form of accountability. The path to a renewal of the criminal misconduct of the Bush years is being prepared right now. And Obama Justice Department lawyers are doing the work.
