Jose Padilla v. John Yoo - Audio of Civil Suit Argument before 9th Circuit on 6/14/10

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ^ | 6/14/10 | United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

[BCrago66]

There's been a years-long multi-front attack on John Yoo - now a professor of law at Berkeley - for his war-related legal opinions while he was at the Justice Department during the Bush administration. Activists have tried - and so far failed - to boot Yoo from his position at Berkeley, but they still disrupt his classes, and protest at his house & publicize his address. The threat of criminal charges against Yoo was finally dropped, after years of leaks from Democrat hacks at the Department of Justice, intended to damage Mr. Yoo's reputation. But there's still an ongoing civil suit against Yoo for allegedly causing constitutional violations against Padilla, by writing certain legal memos while at the Department of Justice.

I know there are lawyers on this site, so those interested can correct this summary if I get it wrong, but as best I can tell this 9th circuit argument concerns an appeal from this District Court decision...

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/files/padilla-yoo.pdf

...which:

1) Allows a Bivens remedy, i.e., a cash payout for alleged constitutional violations by Yoo against Padilla for writing legal memos dealing with the detention and interrogation of Padilla, and,

2) Deprives Yoo of Qualified Immunity for these alleged constitutional violations, a doctrine that protects against civil suits when defendants reasonably believed the targeted conduct was constitutional.

The decision merely allowed the suit to survive a Motion to Dismiss; it didn't rule on the merits of Padilla's claims.

Besides being intrinsically interesting, I thought I'd call attention to the oral argument because:

1) Yoo's lawyer is conservative legal star Miguel Estrada.

2) The 9th Circuit has one of the best media sections of any court website. Oral arguments are released either same day or next day. I find them interesting, particularly when the panel includes the Chief Judge Kozinski.

[BCrago66]

In case the link in the body of my comment is not clickable, here's the District Court decision:

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/files/padilla-yoo.pdf

[BCrago66]

Still not clickable!

How about this:
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/files/padilla-yoo.pdf