{"id":138,"date":"2006-03-11T07:25:22","date_gmt":"2006-03-11T12:25:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/nesson\/2006\/03\/11\/go-peaceful-protest\/"},"modified":"2006-03-11T07:25:22","modified_gmt":"2006-03-11T12:25:22","slug":"go-peaceful-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/nesson\/2006\/03\/11\/go-peaceful-protest\/","title":{"rendered":"GO PEACEFUL PROTEST!!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chris Lydon<\/a> writes to Charles Fried<\/a> who responds with copy to me about Federal Judge Bybee (who signed the “torture memo”) and the Federalist Society of Harvard Law School purporting to cancel a public meeting at which Bybee was to speak, but actually holding the meeting in secret to avoid protest, only to be greeted by protesters wearing Abu Graib outfits at the meeting’s conclusion. Was the protest peaceful and respectful? Was press present at the protest? Are there photographs? Charles, a “pity” that the Federal judge and the Federalist Society of Harvard Law School were forced into holding a secret meeting by a threat of peaceful protest? On whom does your disapproval fall?
\n###
\n
\nDate: Fri, 10 Mar 2006 22:29:46 -0500 <\/font>
\nTo: Christopher Lydon (chris@christopherlydon.org)
\nFrom: Charles Fried
\nSubject: Re: \tShouldn’t we be in the streets about this? <\/font><\/strong>
\nCc: nesson@law.harvard.edu <\/p>\n

Chris,
\nYes, I agree. It is a pity that the threat of disruption should have deprived those who wanted to hear Bybee and question him in an orderly fashion of that opportunity. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.
\nCharles<\/p>\n

At 05:13 PM 3\/10\/2006, Chris Lydon had forwarded to Charles Fried:<\/em>
\nTorture Memo Judge Greeted by Protests at Harvard
\nBybee Speaks at Secret Event After Speech Falsely Cancelled <\/strong><\/font><\/p>\n

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
\nFor more information, please contact:
\nYukyan Lam ( 617 429 4357)
\nDarryl Li ( 781 789 5967)
\nMaryam Monalisa Gharavi (617 642 0755)<\/p>\n

Cambridge, MA (9 March 2006) — Federal appellate judge Jay Bybee, who
\nsigned the infamous 2002 ‘torture memo,’ was confronted by protesters at
\nHarvard Law School today after speaking at a closed event. <\/p>\n

In August 2002, Bybee, then a high-ranking Justice Department official,
\nsigned the now-infamous ‘torture memo’ establishing a legal framework for
\ninterrogation policies in the ‘Global War on Terror.’ The Bybee memo
\ndistorted international and U.S. law to give a green light for the kinds
\nof torture and mistreatment documented in Abu Ghrayb, Guantanamo Bay,
\nAfghanistan, and elsewhere. <\/p>\n

Bybee left his speech to find a line of protesters chanting ‘Shame!’ and
\nwearing black hoods — a reference to the infamous images of the hooded
\nprisoners abused by U.S. servicemen at Abu Ghrayb prison in Iraq. The
\nprotest was organized by Harvard Law Student Advocates for Human Rights
\nand the Alliance for Justice in the Middle East at Harvard. <\/p>\n

‘The Bybee torture memo paved the way for the systematic abuse of
\nprisoners in US military detention,’ said Darryl Li, a member of the
\nAlliance for Justice in the Middle East. ‘Bybee should be under
\ninvestigation for his crimes rather than lecturing at Harvard Law School.’ <\/p>\n

President Bush rewarded Bybee with a lifetime appointment to the US 9th
\nCircuit Court of Appeals in 2003. The Bybee torture memo — which
\nsanctions detainee abuse as long as it does not cause ‘serious physical
\ninjury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even
\ndeath’ — aroused such public outrage that the Bush administration was
\nlater forced to repudiate it. <\/p>\n

Yale Law School dean Harold Koh described the Bybee torture memo as ‘the
\nmost clearly erroneous legal opinion I have ever read’ and ‘a stain upon
\nour law and our national reputation.’ <\/p>\n

Legal experts have identified five major flaws in the Bybee torture memo:
\nit defines torture so narrowly as to be meaningless; it allows cruel,
\ninhuman, and degrading treatment, which international law also prohibits;
\nit allows a torturer to evade criminal responsibility by invoking the
\n‘just following orders’ defense, reversing decades of judicial precedent;
\nit explores means of getting around torture laws rather than enforcing
\nthem; and it misreads the Constitution to authorize the president to
\nviolate the law in the name of his ‘Commander-in-Chief’ powers. <\/p>\n

Bybee spoke at a closed, unannounced event. The Harvard Federalist
\nSociety, a conservative law students’ organization that sponsored the
\nevent, originally advertised the talk to the Harvard community last week.
\nOn Wednesday, the organization issued a public cancellation, citing a
\n‘scheduling conflict.’ The event, in fact, had been moved to an
\nundisclosed location known only to select Federalist Society members. <\/p>\n

A broad coalition of students and faculty at the Harvard Law School calls
\nfor Bybee’s impeachment. ‘It is a dark day indeed for our justice system
\nwhen those who unapologetically advocate for torture and other deviations
\nfrom our national values are allowed to determine the boundaries of our
\nlegal system,’ said Yukyan Lam, a board member of Harvard Law Student
\nAdvocates for Human Rights. <\/p>\n

###
\nAn interesting brief blog at LiveJournal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

Date: Sat, 11 Mar 2006 <\/em>
\nFrom: Darryl Li (darrylli@fas.harvard.edu)
\nTo: Charles Nesson (nesson@law.harvard.edu)
\nSubject: Re: Fwd: Re: Shouldn’t we be in the streets about this? <\/p>\n

Dear Professor Nesson<\/p>\n

Thank you for your email. The protest was not only peaceful and
\nrespectful, it did NOT disrupt the talk at all. The protesters made no
\nattempt to enter the room nor to make noises from outside that would
\ndisrupt the talk. The exclusive scope of the protest was to picket Bybee
\nas he exited. We held up signs, wore hoods, chanted “shame,” and followed
\nBybee as he left the building. All of this was precisely to avoid any
\npossible accusation of disrupting a closed event to which we were not
\ninvited.<\/p>\n

There were no journalists present but James Cavallaro and at least one
\nother faculty\/staff member whose name I did not catch (Stephan, Yukyan,
\ncan you help?) observed the whole thing. Some of the protesters were
\npushed by Federalist Society members and I understand Cavallaro was as
\nwell but I’m not familiar with the exact details.
\n[snip]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chris Lydon writes to Charles Fried who responds with copy to me about Federal Judge Bybee (who signed the “torture memo”) and the Federalist Society of Harvard Law School purporting to cancel a public meeting at which Bybee was to speak, but actually holding the meeting in secret to avoid protest, only to be greeted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":370,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[439],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-harvard","p1","y2006","m03","d11","h02"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/nesson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/nesson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/nesson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/nesson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/370"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/nesson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/nesson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/nesson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/nesson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/nesson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}