Protests against John Yoo greet UC Berkeley law school ceremonies

Up to over 150 protesters, many clad in orange jumpsuits and black hoods to emulate the infamous photos of prisoners in Iraq, picketed UC Berkeley's law school graduation ceremony on May 17, demanding that the university fire Professor John Yoo for his authorship of the Bush administration's policies on torture. "We want to see him fired and disbarred for being a war criminal," said Anne Weills, an Oakland attorney who said she was with the National Lawyers Guild, one of the groups that protested. "Academic freedom stops when you intend to harm or injure somebody." Yoo, a tenured constitutional law professor at Boalt Hall, took a leave of absence from 2001 to 2003 to work for the US Department of Justice. During that time, he wrote what critics call the "torture memos," which protesters say outlined the legal basis for the use of torture at the Abu Ghraib (Iraq) and Guantanamo Bay (Cuba) military prisons. Yoo did not attend Saturday's graduation ceremony. Graduates and their families and friends generally were supportive of the protest, held outside UC Berkeley's Greek Theatre. Protesters toted signs and handed out leaflets. Two protesters knelt in a cage meant to resemble a prison cell. Standing guard at the cage was Mary Erwin of Oakland, who was dressed in camouflage fatigues and brandished a cardboard replica of an automatic rifle. "I'm here because it's a good opportunity to pressure the government on this issue," she said. "It feels good to be out here talking about it. Most people are saying 'thank you.' " Overhead in the skies a rented airplane flew in circles, dragging a message demanding that Yoo be fired. Yoo drafted an August 2002 memo, signed by his boss, former Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee, providing the legal basis to justify torture in interrogating terrorism suspects. Among other things, Yoo argued that habeas corpus and other legal protections don't apply to CIA detainees because Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib are not on US soil. Yoo's torture memo was later rescinded by the Department of Justice and, in 2004 and 2006, in two lawsuits challenging the legality of the torture policy, the US Supreme Court voided many of Yoo's arguments.