Nashville’s Belmont University has a new law school, one that opened last summer. It also has a new Distinguished Professor of Law, former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. The Distinguished Professor is also distinguished by his official endorsement of government torture and kidnapping during his time at the White House and in the Justice Department.
Alberto Gonzales has expressed regret over calling The Geneva Conventions “quaint.”
Then White House Counsel, Mr. Gonzales wrote, in a 2002 memorandum that is said to have caused Secretary of State Colin Powell to “hit the roof”:
“In my judgment, this new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva’s strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions.”
Next stop, Abu Ghraib.
Two years after he was forced to resign as Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales is scheduled to teach undergraduates at Texas Tech, something he has never done before, and the university’s real professors are not happy about it. Over 40 Texas Tech faculty members (47 at last report) have signed a petition objecting to the teaching appointment of Mr. Gonzales.
Disgraced former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will receive extra-judicial punishment next month when he is exiled to remote Lubbock, Texas. In a questionable choice of correctional employment, he will be allowed contact with young Americans as a faculty member at Texas Tech University.
While waiting to testify in Federal Court, at the International Criminal Court, and before Congress for his actions as White House Counsel and Attorney General, Mr. Gonzales will teach a junior-level Political Science course, “Contemporary Issues in the Executive Branch” and lecture to impressionable youngsters on campus. He will also be paid to entice unsuspecting Hispanic American teens to enrol at Tech and Angelo State University in San Angelo.
I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, in accordance with Public Law 87-20, as amended, do hereby proclaim May 1, 2009, as Law Day, U.S.A. I call upon the people of the United States to acknowledge the importance of our Nation’s legal and judicial systems with appropriate ceremonies and activities, and to display the flag of the United States in support of this national observance.
In 1958, President Eisenhower established Law Day as “a day of national dedication to the principles of government under law.” Each year on Law Day, we celebrate our commitment to the rule of law.
— Law Day, U.S.A., 2009, A Proclamation.
United States Code, Title 18, 2441: War Crimes
(d) Common Article 3 Violations.—
(1) Prohibited conduct.— In subsection (c)(3), the term “grave breach of common Article 3” means any conduct (such conduct constituting a grave breach of common Article 3 of the international conventions done at Geneva August 12, 1949), as follows:
NotionsCapital 