Charles D. Stimson is the American deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs at the Pentagon and in an interview on Wednesday he castigated top US law firms for having the temerity to represent US detainees at Guantánamo Bay and called on their corporate clients to boycott the firms.
This is just appalling and there is no doubt that he should be sacked post haste which means, of course, that he is likely to be promoted. There is absolutely no place in what is supposed to be an open and free society, purportedly based on the rule of law, for a government official to suggest that lawyers should make decisions on whom they will represent based on governmental pressure nor for that pressure to be applied to third parties by the government to ensure that it demands are followed.
How far will this administration go in asserting its extra-Constitutional authority? How far will the American public allow it to go?
This is just appalling and there is no doubt that he should be sacked post haste which means, of course, that he is likely to be promoted. There is absolutely no place in what is supposed to be an open and free society, purportedly based on the rule of law, for a government official to suggest that lawyers should make decisions on whom they will represent based on governmental pressure nor for that pressure to be applied to third parties by the government to ensure that it demands are followed.
How far will this administration go in asserting its extra-Constitutional authority? How far will the American public allow it to go?
No comments:
Post a Comment