On Wednesday the Senate Judiciary Committee held its confirmation hearing for Dawn Johnsen, nominee to head the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) at the Department of Justice.  The Senators had some pointed questions for Johnsen about the secrecy of OLC opinions. 

During the Bush administration, the OLC's opinions, which justified warrantless wiretapping, extraordinary rendition, and most infamously, so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques,” were all considered to be confidential under attorney-client privilege.  Johnsen has spoken at length about the proper role of OLC and her disagreement with the secrecy surrounding the office under President Bush .

Senator Feinstein questioned the nominee regarding the fate of secret Bush-era counterterrorism memos.  Johnsen is in favor of a presumption of disclosure, consistent with her view that “transparency…promotes confidence in the lawfulness of governmental action.”  She went on to clarify that while some opinions, if requested by another executive branch agency, could be released immediately, this may not be the case for opinions more pertinent to national security.  Johnsen explained that the possible need to redact classified information in some opinions could prevent their immediate release.

Of course, redacted and late is better then nothing at all, which is what Congress and the public was getting from Bush's OLC.  But in the interest of transparency and accountability, Johnsen, once confirmed, ought to take steps to insure that as much of this information as possible is released

This article was authored by our intern, Chris George.
Image by Flickr user anotherpintplease used under a Creative Commons License.