Legal ethics expert and professor of law at Georgetown University David Luban just testified before the Senate Subcommittee on Administrative oversight and the Courts, where he said, "Based on the publicly available sources I've studied, the [OLC] memos are an ethical train wreck."
Luban added that the ethical standard for any lawyer is to "use candid and independent judgement and give candid, unvarnished advice." He added that this was especially important for lawyers in the Office of Legal Counsel. "OLC's job is not to rubberstamp administration policies, and it is not to provide legal cover for illegal actions." Luban seemed particularly shocked by the 2002 Bybee memo, which "legalized" waterboarding without referencing United States v. Lee, a Reagan-era case in which four law enforcement officers were prosecuted and convicted for waterboarding.
At the same time, while saying that he himself believed that it was impossible for lawyers of "such great talent and intelligence" to provide this caliber of advice, Luban testified that "ethics violations must be proved, by clear and convincing evidence, not just asserted."
-- A. Serwer
