Convictions: Slate's blog on legal issues

Next Time?

Seems to me that about the most useless thing any of us can do with the Yoo memo is form character judgments. Whether his work at OLC was animated by bad motives or a well-intentioned desire to avert a terror attack is beyond the scope of a legal blog. Let’s leave that to the angels. This discussion is only useful insofar as we grant that folks at OLC will always face enormous pressure, particularly in the wake of a tragedy like 9/11, to make decisions that may look really bad in hindsight. Doug has some prescriptions for checking that pressure, as does Dawn. Instead of bickering about character facts not in evidence, we should be thinking about what happens the next time.