The speaker had hardly finished his first sentence when about 25 Yale Law School students in the audience stood up and sheathed their heads in black trash bags, in imitation of hooded military prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Here are the comments on the Yale Daily News:
Is this Yale Law School or is this Yale Middle School?
And, am I the only one to think that there is something especially silly in protesting a *debate*.
Any 'middle schooler' can see that they weren't 'protesting a debate.' They're protesting Bybee's role in setting torture policies.
I think Yale needs to examine its own commitments to propriety before considering others'.
At http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/powerpoint/csd5020.pps is an example.
i find it fascinating that the author did not pay mind to the content of the actual talk and only focus on the beginning minute.
yeah, it's big news, but I personally would want to hear what Bybee said.
Can the Federalist society at Yale let us know when they plan on bringing in KarlRove and Rumsfeld too? I'm fascinated by criminals being portrayed in public as normal human beings. Perhaps a series; bring in Bush and Cheney after 2009 when the MSM then portrays them as heroes. Can I suggest a name to this series?... "Fascists on Parade at Yale".
Thanks to the protesters. Those citizens who would prefer we stay silent are ignorant of the law and have so shallow a grasp of history that they are not capable of recognizing the onset of state tyranny.
I'd like to see a Judicial Ethics Inquiry into Bybee; and a serious discussion in the House to impeach him in re alleged Geneva violations. The kw="Justice Trail" is precedent for prosecuting judicial officers who failed to fully enforce Geneva. Geneva prohibits all abuse; whether Bybee thought something was or wasn't torture is meaningless. He needs to be confronted before a judicial tribunal and prosecuted for alleged war crimes, as was done at Nuremberg.
To quote Dr. King, "A time comes when silence is betrayal".
This is more like the pamphlets of der Weißen Rose, Hans & Sophie Scholl, & al., who were executed by the Nazis for their effrontery.
We are happily at least several years away from that state, where "white people" are being dragged off the streets for no reason (as most of the inhabitants of Gitmo were for bounty money, turned in by locals for spite or profit). But for the brown people of the world, the victims of all our wars since WWII (except the Balkans), that is cold comfort.
Law students protest Bybee’s torture memo
Audience members place trash bags on heads during talk by former chief of Bush’s Office of Legal Counsel
The speaker had hardly finished his first sentence when about 25 Yale Law School students in the audience stood up and sheathed their heads in black trash bags, in imitation of hooded military prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
The students were protesting an appearance at the Law School on Thursday evening by Jay Bybee, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit who, when he was head of the Bush administration’s Office of Legal Counsel, signed off on a controversial policy for interrogation and detention of “military combatants” — what critics have labeled the “torture memo.”
Bybee’s speech was billed as a debate with Yale Law professor Steven Duke about federalism and criminal law, but for at least two dozen audience members, the address was primarily an opportunity to confront Bybee. The event — hosted by the Yale chapter of the Federalist Society, an organization of conservative and libertarian law students — was reserved exclusively for law students and closed to the press, but the proceedings were visible from the hallway.
“Jay Bybee helped formulate policies that violated hundreds of people’s human rights,” protest organizer Darryl Li LAW ’09 said in an interview after the demonstration. “He was never held accountable for what he did but rather was promoted to a very powerful position in the federal judiciary.”
Christopher Angevine LAW ’08, president of the Federalist Society, declined to comment on the event Thursday night.
Several members of the Law School faculty have been vocal opponents of Bush administration policies on the war on terror. Dean Harold Hongju Koh testified before Congress in 2006 against the warrantless domestic wiretapping program. And last month, Law School visiting lecturer Jonathan Freiman LAW ’98 and Yale’s Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic filed suit against John Yoo LAW ’92 on behalf of Jose Padilla — who was convicted of conspiracy to murder and kidnap people overseas — for Yoo’s role in drafting Bybee’s memo.
Before the event, the protestors convened in the Law School auditorium, where Li distributed trash bags and briefed them on the plan. The participants were an informal group of students, Li said.
“This is an issue that’s important to the world and to the nation, but especially to us as law students, because Bybee is a shameful example of how placing power above principle violates the rule of law and dishonors the legal profession,” Li said.
At the door of the lecture hall, which was guarded by a police officer, two students handed out fliers titled “STAND UP TO TORTURE.” One of them said she offered a flier to Bybee when he entered, but he turned it down.
The program began at 6:10 p.m. with an introduction by the Federalist Society’s vice president for events, Adam Gustafson LAW ’09. Those in the half-full lecture hall applauded as Bybee ascended to the lectern.
But as he began to speak, the protesters, clustered in the center seats, stood and pulled the bags over their heads. A few other audience members clapped, several of the protesters said afterward. Bybee, visibly annoyed, stopped speaking.
“If you’re blocking other people from seeing, you have to leave,” Li said Gustafson told the protesters. Gustafson paused, then said, “You are blocking people. You have to leave.”
The protestors removed the bags and laid them at the foot of the lectern as they walked out. Bybee then went on the speak for about 30 minutes.
Li said he was involved in a similar protest when Bybee spoke at Harvard Law School in 2006.
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