Torture counsel John Yoo is now “teaches” at Chapman Law School. I’m not going to take a soapbox and rail against Chapman Law School for employing him because Chapman is in the education business, and quite frankly, both students and faculty can be educated. I know there are many at Chapman who work hard to teach law students what they should aspire to and how to proceed ethically in the legal world and I support them in that mission.  John Yoo is not in that group.
The people who have disappointed me the most in this are the Chapman students. Several were interviewed in the LA Times this week and expressed delight at having such an “eminent” person in their ranks.  Are you guys really that desperate?  Â
John Yoo is a problem. He doesn’t believe in the Constitution. He doesn’t believe in checks and balances. John Yoo presents a teachable moment for Chapman students because he teaches what you should not be, what you should not do.
I support anyone who takes John Yoo’s classes because it is an opportunity for students to see up close and personal the damage that is caused by operating in a world without a Constitution, without checks and balances, without legal ethics, without ethics period. You know when they take the people convicted of drunk driving to the morgue to show them the dead people, to teach them they could die from driving drunk or kill some one? John Yoo is like that – an example of the very serious consequences of where our country can end up with an eroded Constitiution.
Frankly, I’m surprised that John Yoo’s hiring didn’t elicit protests or much news coverage.
Well there was coverage as the post notes, cover of the 02/11/09 L.A. Times soon-to-be-gone California section.
Normally a visiting law school profe would only grace the insides of the local legal paper, the Daily Journal.
As for protests, there are the usual suspects making plans, but as the article notes, Yoo’s reception might have been a wee bit chillier at Boalt Hall in Berkeley
Good post although a little harsh on the students. Yoo has excellent academic credentials and I suspect his classes will be full. You go to law school to learn from both sides, devil or angel as the instructor may be. It’s unfortunate Yoo chose to use his gifts in such a way as to provide terrible advice which resulted in significant harm to our country’s reputation.
John Yoo, David Frum, Christopher Hitchens, and Andrew Sullivan (though he does have some redeeming qualities) are poster boys for why we need immigration reform.
Let John Yoo teach at Chapman. I don’t agree with him, but that is what college is for, to determine one’s opinions for ourselves. I had a professor in college that thought Abraham Lincoln was the biggest racist that ever existed. Her class sticks with me today and reminds me that Lincoln was exactly the opposite and worked hard to keep the country together.
So what you’re saying is there is now one ‘right’ thinker on campus. OHHHHHHH Scary!!!!