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May 3, 2012

Court Dismisses Torture Memo Suit Against John Yoo 
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A federal appeals court has dismissed a lawsuit seeking to hold former
Bush administration lawyer John Yoo accountable for authoring the
"torture memos" that permitted harsh abuses on detainees. The former
so-called "enemy combatant" Jose Padilla had sued Yoo for devising the
legal justification for his imprisonment and torture. Padilla was jailed
for 43 months without charge in a Navy brig in South Carolina and is now
serving a 17-year sentence. In its ruling, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals said Yoo is immune because U.S. torture laws were unclear
when the memos were produced. A similar lawsuit filed by Padilla against
former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was thrown out last year.

 

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