Friday, April 24, 2009

The Jay Bybee Problem

How did Jay Bybee breeze through an unusually easy confirmation hearing for his appointment to the Federal Appeals Court in February 2003? Not a single Democrat questioned Bybee at the session, and the brief proceedings soon became a love-fest between Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah and Jay Bybee. "I've seen a lot of people around here, and I don't know of anybody who has any more ability than you have," states Sen. Hatch in a typical exchange featured in this report.

 


Just six months prior to the hearing, Jay Bybee had signed legal memos providing cover for CIA agents torturing detainees -- yet Congress voted him to a lifetime on the federal bench. How did this happen? And what will become of Judge Bybee now?

 


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