A federal appeals court Wednesday threw out convicted terrorist Jose Padilla’s lawsuit accusing UC Berkeley law professor John Yoo of authorizing illegal interrogation methods.
In a unanimous decision, three justices of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Yoo, a former deputy assistant attorney general, is protected from such lawsuits, reversing a lower court decision from 2009 that allowed the civil suit to go forward.
Padilla’s 2008 lawsuit draws upon a series of memos Yoo wrote between 2001 and 2002 that shaped national security politics and expanded executive power during the Bush administration.
Yoo gained notoriety for authoring memos concluding that an interrogation technique must cause damage equal “to the level of death, organ failure, or the permanent impairment of a significant body function” to be considered torture.
Padilla claimed that Yoo, over a series of memos, authorized and covered up illegal interrogation methods allegedly used against him including sleep deprivation, stress positions, isolation and extremes of temperature, light and darkness.
But the court ruled that because the definition of torture remained unsettled at the time Yoo authored the memos, he is protected from such lawsuits.
“We are compelled to conclude that, regardless of the legality of Padila’s detention and the wisdom of Yoo’s judgments, at the time he acted the law was not ‘sufficiently clear that every reasonable official would have understood that what he (was) doing violate(d)’ the plaintiffs’ rights,” said Judge Raymond Fisher in the 3-0 ruling.
Padilla, currently serving a 17-year sentence, was arrested in 2002 and initially charged with conspiracy to detonate a radioactive “dirty bomb” but later convicted on unrelated charges of conspiracy to fund Islamic extremist groups, according to court documents.
In January, another appeals court dismissed similar charges by Padilla against former Bush administration officials including former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
“The 9th Circuit’s decision confirms that this litigation has been baseless from the outset,” Yoo said in a statement after the ruling. “For several years, Padilla and his attorneys have been harassing the government officials … and will need to find a new hobby for his remaining time in prison.”
Curan Mehra covers higher education.
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Continuing UC Berkeley’s tradition of spreading darkness
And those terrorists murdering people were just spreading sweetness and light, huh?
Idiot lefties like you don’t give a damn about “human rights”. You simply default to whatever position is the most anti-American.
“tradition of spreading darkness” (an intended play on Fiat Lux, perhaps?): well, if it’s been around so long it’s a “tradition”, you must have been a complete idiot to associate yourself with Berkeley in the first place. But it’s not too late to correct that mistake, and make a public break with this place you abhor by leaving it.
Bet you won’t, though. Cowardice & cheap shots is easier.