Law Prof’s Sarcastic Op-Ed Cites ‘Mukasey’s Paradox’

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Law Prof’s Sarcastic Op-Ed Cites ‘Mukasey’s Paradox’

Posted Mar 10, 2008, 09:07 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss

Law professor Jonathan Turley of George Washington University is taking aim at recent decisions by the attorney general by giving a name to the legal reasoning that spurred them: Mukasey’s Paradox.

Turley makes his points in an op-ed published in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. He says he once was troubled by two decisions by U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey. One was his refusal to investigate the CIA’s “secret torture program.” The other was his refusal to refer contempt charges to a grand jury against White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers.

Now, though, Turley says he sees “something profound, even beautiful, in Mukasey's action. In his twisting of legal principles, the attorney general has succeeded in creating a perfect paradox. Under Mukasey's Paradox, lawyers cannot commit crimes when they act under the orders of a president—and a president cannot commit a crime when he acts under advice of lawyers.”

Turley likens the paradox told the old “Grandfather Paradox: If you go back in time and kill your grandfather before he meets your grandmother, you would not be conceived and therefore you could not go back to kill your grandfather. That one can play real tricks with your head.”

Turley’s op-ed doesn’t mention the Justice Department’s investigation into the destruction of videotapes showing harsh interrogation techniques being used on al-Qaida suspects. The department’s Office of Professional Responsibility is also investigating whether administration lawyers who approved waterboarding complied with legal ethics standards.

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