An Ex-AG Asks Mukasey to Release Secret Opinions

A former attorney general has joined with another high-profile lawyer to ask Michael Mukasey to release the Justice Department’s secret legal opinions on torture and the war on terrorism.

Former Attorney General Nicholas deB. Katzenbach and Frederick A. O. Schwarz Jr. wrote a New York Times op-ed asking the new attorney general to release the opinions. Schwarz is a retired Cravath partner who works for the Brennan Center for Justice.

“Secrecy always increases the risk of foolish mistakes,” the op-ed says.

“Opinions that narrowly define what constitutes torture; or open the door to sending prisoners for questioning to Egypt and Syria, which regularly use torture; or rule the president has some ‘inherent power’ to ignore laws are all of concern to Congress and the public whether one agrees or disagrees with the legal analysis,” the op-ed says.