CNN:A coalition of progressive groups sought Monday to have 12 Bush administration lawyers disbarred for their roles in crafting the legal rationale for so-called enhanced interrogation techniques that many view as torture.
"It is time to hold these lawyers accountable for violating their legal oath," Kevin Zeese, an attorney for the coalition, said in a written statement.
"Just as the bar would suspend an attorney who advised a police officer to torture and brutalize a detained immigrant or criminal defendant, the bar must suspend these attorneys for advocating and causing the torture of war detainees. The disciplinary boards that hear these complaints must act or they will be seen as complicit in the use of torture."
It's hard to disagree. While the right seems to have a problem with judges supposedly "legislating from the bench," they've been pretty silent on White House lawyers legislating out of their offices. By making up a flimsy legal rationale for allowing torture, they sought to bypass the legislative process and make torture legal by decree.
CNN reports that the lawyers in question are David Addington, John Ashcroft, Stephen Bradbury, Jay Bybee, Michael Chertoff, Douglas Feith, Alice Fisher, Timothy Flanigan, Alberto Gonzales, William Haynes II, Michael Mukasey, and John Yoo.
Anyone who misunderstands the legal process to this degree -- either intentionally or out of incompetence -- has no business practicing law. They're either too unethical or too stupid to do it.
