Judge Jay Bybee should resign from .. 9th .. Circuit Court of Appeals (3 attorneys | Seattle Times)

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Judge Jay Bybee should resign from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals

Jay Bybee, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, should resign, argue three Seattle appellate attorneys. As an assistant attorney general, Bybee authored two legal memos that gave the Bush administration legal cover for use of torture against persons seized in the "War on Terror."

By Michael King, Howard Goodfriend and Kenneth Masters

JAY Bybee has been a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit since 2003. We believe he should resign.

President George W. Bush appointed Bybee as a reward for his service in the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice, where he was an assistant attorney general.

We now know the full nature of his service. In August 2002, Assistant Attorney General Bybee signed two memorandums providing legal cover for our government's use of torture against persons seized in the "War on Terror."

Bybee's first legal memorandum concluded that the prohibition against torture reaches only the most "extreme" acts. Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and others relied upon this conclusion to endorse actions now widely condemned as war crimes ...

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2009274402_opinb29king.html

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