In an editorial in yesterday's New York Times, the New York Times forcibly calls for the impeachment of Ninth Circuit Judge Jay Bybee for his role in authoring the Bush Administration's torture memos:
In one of the more nauseating passages, Jay Bybee, then an assistant attorney general and now a federal judge, wrote admiringly about a contraption for waterboarding that would lurch a prisoner upright if he stopped breathing while water was poured over his face. He praised the Central Intelligence Agency for having doctors ready to perform an emergency tracheotomy if necessary.
These memos are not an honest attempt to set the legal limits on interrogations, which was the authors’ statutory obligation. They were written to provide legal immunity for acts that are clearly illegal, immoral and a violation of this country’s most basic values.
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These memos make it clear that Mr. Bybee is unfit for a job that requires legal judgment and a respect for the Constitution. Congress should impeach him. And if the administration will not conduct a thorough investigation of these issues, then Congress has a constitutional duty to hold the executive branch accountable. If that means putting Donald Rumsfeld and Alberto Gonzales on the stand, even Dick Cheney, we are sure Americans can handle it.
The recently released Bush Administration Torture Memos can be read on the NYT's website. Doesn't this provide grounds to move to recuse Judge Bybee in any appeal he hears where the voluntariness of a defendant's statements are at issue?