Bipartisan Lawyering

Big in the news recently were reports of Republicans....including Ken Starr....lining up to defend administration lawyers who had formerly worked as legal counsel on behalf of accused Al Qaida and other terrorist suspects.  It seems that more than a few other Republicans have forgotten President John Adams and his defense of the British soldiers accused of committing the Boston Massacre.

A group that includes leading conservative lawyers and policy experts, former Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr and several senior officials of the last Bush administration is denouncing as “shameful” Republican attacks on lawyers who came to the Obama Justice Department after representing suspected terrorists.


......


“We consider these attacks both unjust to the individuals in question and destructive of any attempt to build lasting mechanisms for counterterrorism adjudications,” wrote the 19 lawyers whose names were attached to the statement as of early Monday.

Those signing the statement were:

Benjamin Wittes, Robert Chesney,Matthew Waxman, David Rivkin, Lee Casey, Philip Bobbitt, Peter Keisler, Bradford Berenson, Kenneth Anderson, John Bellinger III, Philip Zelikow,Kenneth W. Starr, Larry Thompson, Charles "Cully" D. Stimso, Chuck Rosenberg, Harvey Rishikoff, Orin Kerr, Daniel Dell’Orto

Given how some on the left have gone after lawyers from the prior administration, it is good to see some bipartisanship left in the world.