Obama Backs Sunshine For Secret Legal Memos [View All]

[babylonsister]

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/01/obama_backs_sunshine_for_secret_legal_memos.php

Obama Backs Sunshine For Secret Legal Memos
By Elana Schor - January 12, 2009, 7:02PM


I know I wasn't the only one troubled by the president-elect's interview with ABC News yesterday, when he was asked about adopting a uniform, torture-free military interrogation standard and replied (emphasis mine): "...And if our top army commanders feel comfortable with interrogation techniques that are squarely within the boundaries of rule of law..."

But this is certainly a good sign. From Politico:

Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) said he's been informed that President Obama will support his proposed legislation to make public some opinions from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, which issued some of the Bush Administration's most sweeping claims of executive power. Obama also has promised to limit President Bush's practice of using "signing statements" to amend legislation.

Here's a link to the Library of Congress' summary of Feingold's bill, which was passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee last year with one cosponsor -- brace yourselves, liberals, it was the oft-maligned Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). The legislation would essentially require Congress to be notified when any justice department releases a legal memo interpreting the constitutionality of federal statutes or exempting the president from any newly passed law.

Coming three days after the Bush DoJ's Office of Legal Counsel released a last gasp of abusive, ill-advised, law-stretching secret memos, this is a welcome sign.