indepublica

On December 1, 2006 John Yoo debated Doug Cassel, the director of Notre Dame Law School’s Center for Civil and Human Rights.

Cassel: “If the president deems that he’s got to torture somebody, including by crushing the testicles of the person’s child, there is no law that can stop him?”

Yoo: “No treaty.”

Cassel:“Also no law by Congress—that is what you wrote in the August 2002 memo [while Yoo was an attorney for the Justice Department].”

Yoo: “I think it depends on why the president thinks he needs to do that.”

In other words, it’s not law that limits the president’s actions –it’s the reason he gives for his actions that determines whether the law applies to him. This logic effectively holds the president above the law so long as he claims to be acting in the interest of national security.

So where exactly is the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States in all this? If I had to guess I’d say probably buried somewhere near Geneva… Article 3.

Audio of this exchange can be found here.