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Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Law - Dawn Johnsen questioned by Senate committee [Updated]

The confirmation hearing for Indiana University law professor Dawn Johnsen was today.

The Blog of LegalTimes has this report today - some quotes:

The nominee to lead the Office of Legal Counsel faced questions today about the same set of issues that occupied the office under the Bush administration: the legal limits of the executive branch in preventing terrorism.

Senators asked Dawn Johnsen (above), a law professor at Indiana University at Bloomington, to explain her views on detaining potentially dangerous combatants, on interrogation techniques, and on the confidentiality of OLC opinions related to national security. She has been a vocal critic of the office's work during the last eight years.

The Washington Independent had several stories during the day.

Here are earlier ILB entries on Professor Johnsen.

[Updated 2/26/08] See the article by Dahlia Lithwick of Slate, headed 'Thou Shalt Not Blog: Obama's OLC Nominee discovers the perils of "blogging, advocating, and speeching.'" It concludes:

But for those of us who have become accustomed in the past weeks to being grateful for half a loaf, Johnsen offers up three-quarters. She says torture is illegal and water-boarding is torture. She clarifies that the president may not order torture if duly enacted laws prohibit him from doing so. She opposes presidential abuse of signing statements. She says the OLC should have a preference for transparency. She pledges not to halt or interfere with the release of the impending Office of Professional Responsibility report about the competence of previous OLC opinions. And When Sen. Whitehouse describes the previous administration's OLC as "Dick Cheney's Little Shop of Legal Horrors," she cracks a grin.
"Justice Dept. Nominee Avoids Confrontation at Hearing" is the headline of this story today by Neil A. Lewis of the NY Times.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 25, 2009 06:36 PM
Posted to General Law Related