Conservative Lawyers Push Back against Lynne Cheney Smear on Lawyers for Detainees

images: Liz Cheney, `Keep America Safe' still
Lynne Cheney's attack video labeling as the "al Qaeda 7" Justice Department lawyers who represented Guantanamo detainees has backfired.  Prominent conservative lawyers, including Clinton nemesis Kenneth Starr, have defended as honorable the defense of the unpopular.  The letter, reported on Politico, begins

The American tradition of zealous representation of unpopular clients is at least as old as John Adams’s representation of the British soldiers charged in the Boston massacre. People come to serve in the Justice Department with a diverse array of prior private clients; that is one of the department’s strengths. The War on Terror raised any number of novel legal questions, which collectively created a significant role in judicial, executive and legislative forums alike for honorable advocacy on behalf of detainees. In several key cases, detainee advocates prevailed before the Supreme Court. 

To suggest that the Justice Department should not employ talented lawyers who have advocated on behalf of detainees maligns the patriotism of people who have taken honorable positions on contested questions and demands a uniformity of background and view in government service from which no administration would benefit. 

The full report is HERE.  A broad summary of critical response to  the video by TPM is HERE.