Lawyers for the Obama administration struggled Friday to persuade a federal judge in San Francisco to throw out an unusual civil lawsuit against John Yoo, the former government lawyer whose memorandums on torture had been used by the Bush administration to justify controversial policies.
Judge Jeffrey White did not seem inclined to dismiss the lawsuit, which was brought by Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen who spent more than three years in isolation in a military brig as an enemy combatant.
White, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, even told the government's lawyers that Yoo's 2001 memorandum stating that the constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures can be overridden was "a pretty scary position."
Predictions of judges' rulings are often proved wrong. Nonetheless, the attorneys for Padilla left the courtroom smiling.
Padilla was convicted in 2007 on terrorism-related conspiracy charges. With his mother, he sued Yoo, claiming that his memorandums were directly responsible for his detention, interrogation and torture. Padilla seeks monetary damages of just $1. His real goal is a declaration from the government that his incarceration and harsh treatment were wrong.
NEW YORK TIMES
