The rise of the American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS) in the Obama administration has been widely noted. ACS is the liberal antidote to the long-influential Federalist Society; Monica Goodling and her gang blackballed applicants to the prestigious Summer Law Intern Program (SLIP) who cited ACS affiliations.
But what’s been overlooked is how activist and outspoken many of the Obama DOJ transition team members have been – often in ACS forums – about the Bush DOJ’s frequent disregard for the law. Law professor Dawn Johnsen, a former Acting Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel and Obama DOJ transition team “leader,” wrote a hard-hitting paper in 2007 called “All the President’s Lawyers: How to Avoid Another ‘Torture Opinion’ Debacle. “Presidential lawyers must be prepared to resign in the extraordinary event the President persists in acting unlawfully,” she wrote.
Here’s Johnsen in her own words: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8-FrzhHT_w&feature=channel]
Georgetown law professor Martin Lederman and Duke law professor Christopher Schroeder — both Obama DOJ transition team members — have also been publicly outspoken. (For more details, see my post on my friend Al Lengel’s federal law enforcement site, Tickle the Wire.) And of course, ACS executive director Lisa Brown will be Obama’s White House staff secretary. But Obama is a political animal through and through; it remains to be seen whether he’ll satisfy liberal bloggers and activists screaming for blood, including prosecution of any government officials involved with illegal practices such as torture.
UPDATE: As expected, Dawn Johnsen was tapped to head of the Office of Legal Counsel Monday.
