Posted by Orin Kerr:
OLC in the Gonzales Years:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_09_30-2007_10_06.shtml#1191464657
The Thursday New York Times has [1]this story on the role of the
Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel under former Attorney
General Alberto Gonzales. The whole thing is worth reading, but I was
particularly interested in this judgment from Doug Kmiec:
Douglas W. Kmiec, who headed that office under President Ronald
Reagan and the first President George Bush and wrote a book about
it, said he believed the intense pressures of the campaign against
terrorism have warped the office's proper role.
"The office was designed to insulate against any need to be an
advocate," said Mr. Kmiec, now a conservative scholar at Pepperdine
University law school. But at times in recent years, Mr. Kmiec
said, the office, headed by William H. Rehnquist and Antonin Scalia
before they served on the Supreme Court, "lost its ability to say
no."
"The approach changed dramatically with opinions on the war on
terror," Mr. Kmiec said. "The office became an advocate for the
president�s policies."
Thanks to [2]Marty Lederman for the link.
References
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/washington/04interrogate.html
2. http://balkin.blogspot.com/2007/10/place-of-inspiration.html
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