Legal News

Yoo on Berkeley: a ?Natural History Museum of the 1960s?

By Ashby Jones

John Yoo says he likes teaching at the law school at Berkeley. But you wouldn’t necessarily know it from a string of quotes he recently gave the LA Times about the town.

Take this quote:

I think of myself as being West Berlin during the Cold War, a shining beacon of capitalism and democracy surrounded by a sea of Marxism . . .

Not provocative enough for you? How about this one:

It’s like looking at the panoramic displays of troglodytes sitting around the campfire with their clubs. Here, it’s tie-dye and marijuana. It’s just like the 1960s, with the Vietnam War still to protest.

And on his students’ reaction to him?

Maybe they have the idea that it would be interesting to see what a conservative professor is like. . . Then they can always say, ‘I’ve met a conservative.’ They can tell their family and friends.

But, according to the story, despite the digs at the town and the left-of-center student body, Yoo seems happy. He “carries on cheerfully with his constitutional law class and a seminar” and points out that “180 students enrolled in his civil procedure class last semester,” as evidence that the students aren’t completely dissing him. (According to the LAT, though, that it was the last opportunity for this year’s graduates to take the class.)

After disclosure last year of memos penned by Yoo while he was Justice Department lawyer that many critics said provided legal cover for harsh interrogation techniques, there were wide calls to dismiss Yoo. But Christopher Edley, the law school’s dean, said he would wait for the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibilities report before taking any action. The report, which came down last month, claimed Yoo exercised poor judgment, but declined to refer him to authorities for possible sanctions. Following the report, Edley issued the following statement:

I hope these new developments will end the arguments about faculty sanctions, but we should and will continue to argue about what is right or wrong, legal or illegal, in combating terrorism. That’s why we are here.

And how does Yoo respond to students like Berkeley Law’s Liz Jackson, who calls Yoo’s continuing to teach at Berkely “a humiliation” and a “huge disservice”?

He doesn’t seek to change his students’ thinking, he says.

“I don’t really care whether they agree with me or not. I don’t care whether they follow me or not. Our mission is to make them better thinkers,” he says. “I would be just as pleased if one of my students became a Democratic [appointed] Supreme Court justice.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 29, 2010 (boomark / email).