Balkin and Lederman on the McCain amendment

[mmcirvin]

I haven't been saying much about the issue of torture and the McCain amendment because I don't have much that is intelligent to say about it. But I will say that the posters to Jack Balkin's blog are still making essential posts on the subject, particularly Marty Lederman's descriptions of possible good, bad and ugly consequences of the law in its current form, and ways in which the administration may seek to use it to broaden the use of abusive techniques. The idea that some of the information already obtained may become admissible is particularly disturbing.

Lederman has been a particularly good source on this issue. It's thanks to his explanation of the Gonzales "torture memo" (which I mentioned back in January) that the more recent revelations about CIA "black sites" didn't come as much of a surprise to me; those black sites were what the torture memo was largely about, and it wouldn't have made any sense without their existence.