Obama legal appointee Marty Lederman's writing for Slate.

Georgetown law professor Marty Lederman has joined the Obama administration's Justice Department as deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel, which basically makes him the president's lawyer (or one of them, at least). Lederman will be leaving his teaching post at Georgetown and, for now, his position as a prized Slate contributor. Lederman has blasted the Bush administration's position on torture and surveillance—as well as its general tone of secrecy—in Slate discussions and on our "Convictions" blog. Here's a selection of his work:

June 17, 2008: "How Did Jim Haynes and Donald Rumsfeld Come To Authorize Torture, Cruel Treatment, and Systematic Violations of the UCMJ?" 

June 10, 2008: "Justice O'Connor's Fragile Legacies."

May 5, 2008: "Does Anyone Care Whether the Bombing in Somalia Was Legal?"

April 28, 2008: "Voter ID Laws: A 'Solution' in Search of a Problem."

April 2, 2008: "The Yoo/Chertoff/Ashcroft Memo?"

March 31, 2008: "No Way To Run a Government."

Aug. 30, 2007: "Are We Heading Back to the Bad Old Days?"

Aug. 28, 2007: "Eureka—the Government Admits It's Been Breaking the Law!"

Read all of Lederman's "Convictions" posts here.