Under the Color of Law - 9780739143292

"Professor Martin Henn has written an important book about the cluster of issues that ought to matter most in a democracy. Under the Color of Law will enjoy a wide readership, and deservedly so."---Joseph Margilies, Northwestern University School of Law. author of Guantanamo and the Abuse of Presidential Power

"Martin Henn's Under the Color of Law is an essential text for anyone concerned about---and distressed by---the Bush administration policies on torture. Henn's discussion centers around the key memos and executive orders that rationalized the Bush practices of torture. He provides an invaluable commentary on them, explaining their relation to larger questions of domestic and international law and the politics of executive power. Henn's discussion is both illuminating and sharply critical of these documents, placing them in the context of legal and political history. I cannot think of a more useful book for anyone studying the sad events of our recent history with torture. His book contributes to our country's ongoing reevaluation of our moral responsibilities in these matters."---Cheyney Ryan. University of Oregon and Oxford University

"This will be the classic analysis of the legal aspects of the Bush wars. Martin Henn gives---first---a brilliant study of the Bush administration's orders and written opinions. On the other side, he presents the relevant details of the U.S. Constitution and applicable international laws. In this impressive and most careful consideration of all the significant documents on both sides, Under the Color of Law makes clear that the Bush administration was illegal, immoral, and inefficient in its 'war on terror.' Nothing else that I have seen on these matters is more important."---Sidney winn. University of South Florida and Temple University

Under the Color of Law constitutes a full and critical scholarly commentary of five key Bush administration legal memoranda formative of U.S. counterterrorism policy from 2001 to 2009. This volume is dedicated to the idea that these documents are worthy of being read and critically examined in themselves as primary texts, precisely because the act of critical assessment may yield meaningful policy reform in the ongoing debate facing the nation over balancing security interests with the preservation of civil liberties. This volume is intended to provide counterpoint for, and antithesis to, positions vigorously defended by President Bush's attorneys working at the OLC inside the Department of Justice, and it is designed to be used primarily in conjunction with, and examined as, a response to the Bush-era documents themselves.

Martin Henn investigates five central questions, each framed around commentary to a specific administration document. This work addresses the Yoo-Flanigan Memorandum of September 25, 2001. and asks whether any president has constitutional power to initiate a foreign war without congressional authorization. Regarding President Bush's November 13 executive order of 2001, Henn asks whether an emergency of war permits any president to usurp judicial and legislative powers to interpret law and define and punish offenses against the law of nations. Along with many other questions these documents initiate, the author carefully analyzes and seeks to answer questions regarding the Bush administration and the use of interrogational coercion and torture in the war on terror.