Prior to her nomination, Dawn Johnson taught and wrote about constitutional law as a professor of Law at the Indiana University School of Law. Johnson has also written various papers condemning the Bush Administration’s civil rights trespasses. In Congressional testimony last spring, Johnson went so far as to say that several legal interpretations were "tainted by the Administration's desired policy ends and overriding objective of expanding presidential power."
Johnson previously served in the Clinton Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel as both the acting assistant attorney general and as a deputy assistant attorney general. She also serves on the board of directors of our partner group, the American Constitution Society.
By contrast, her predecessor Steven Bradbury worked overtime to promote the rollback of civil rights. Bradbury authored several memoranda giving the government broad latitude to conduct harsh interrogations, despite Congressional attempts to limit the inhumane treatment of detainees, and the Supreme Court's Hamdan ruling recognizing the applicability of the Geneva Conventions to Al Qaeda prisoners. Bradbury's work provided much of the basis for a 2005 Bush executive order that allowed the CIA to effectively torture detainees held in secret prisons.
With Dawn Johnson as the assistant AG, we are likely to see policy that respects the civil rights, not just of American citizens, but of detainees too.
—Michael Shultz
When will this eminently qualified candidate be able to get to work on the important issues facing us in the AG's office?
Posted by: Helen Vaughan | July 20, 2009 at 11:00 AM