On John Yoo

“Few lawyers have had more influence on President Bush’s legal policies in the “War on Terror” than John Yoo. This is a remarkable feat, because Yoo was not a Cabinet official, not a White House lawyer, and not even a senior officer within the Justice Department. . . . Yet by all accounts, Yoo had a hand in virtually every major legal decision involving the U.S. response to the attacks of September 11.” –David Cole, The New York Review of Books

“The White House is attempting to create a kind of 9/11 Constitution . . . a strong commitment to inherent presidential authority over national security, including a belief that in crucial domains the president can act without congressional permission, and indeed cannot be checked by congressional prohibitions. . . . The most important theorist of the 9/11 Constitution is John Yoo.” –Cass R. Sunstein, The New Republic

“John Yoo deserves much credit for helping open up a secretive subject for public
discussion, even when it has meant unpleasantness for himself. . . . Yoo lives in a firestorm. In the past few months alone, international lawyers have called for his criminal indictment, students have broken into his classroom at Berkeley . . . to stage a mock detainee hearing, and lecture halls where he is scheduled to speak have been boycotted. . . . Yoo should be commended for not hiding behind the standard Washington cliché of saying, “That’s classified; I can’t talk about it.”” –Neal Kaytal, The Washington Post 

“John Yoo has joined the battle–openly, vigorously, learnedly . . . on the great issues
of the day. By clarifying the theory of government on which the current administration relies in waging war and pursuing peace, he has rendered a genuine service to all, on both sides of the aisle, who wish to uphold the Constitution and defend the nation.” –Peter Berkowitz, New York Post on The Powers of War and Peace