An outstanding appointment

President-Elect Barack Obama announced today that he intends to appoint Indiana University law professor Dawn Johnson to head the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel.  For those of us who've been appalled by the Bush administration's lawless policies, this is change we can believe in.

The OLC is the agency at the Justice Department that authoritatively states the Executive Branch's position on what the law is.  Under the Bush administration, OLC has rubber-stamped torture, warrantless electronic surveillance of Americans, and every other illegal action the administration undertook.  The Department was more publicly disgraced by controversies like the politically-motivated U.S. Attorney firings, but the politicization of OLC and its ensuing malpractice were the most damaging to the Department and to America.

Prof. Johnson has spoken out forcefully against these abuses.  For example, she expressed eloquent outrage over OLC's infamous torture memo, and she made clear exactly what the incoming administration must do to "restore our nation's honor":

Here is a partial answer to my own question of how should we behave, directed especially to the next president and members of his or her administration but also to all of use who will be relieved by the change: We must avoid any temptation simply to move on. We must instead be honest with ourselves and the world as we condemn our nation's past transgressions and reject Bush's corruption of our American ideals. Our constitutional democracy cannot survive with a government shrouded in secrecy, nor can our nation's honor be restored without full disclosure.

Damn straight.  Congratulations to Prof. Johnson and kudos to President-Elect Obama.

Comments

[Woodburn]

Putting a former director of NARAL and an ACLU lawyer in such a prominent legal position at DOJ is change I can believe in.

[Larry Smith]

If she is from the IU Law faculty, she is immediately suspect in my book.
Sincerely
An IUB Law graduate