National Lawyers Guild Urges Senate to Reject Alberto Gonzales as AG

• Gonzales will continue Ashcroft policies that threaten constitutional democracy.

The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) announced that it opposes the nomination of Alberto Gonzales for the position of Attorney General. The NLG condemned Gonzales for his approval of the torture of prisoners in memos he adopted as White House Counsel.  The memos explained how American officials could escape legal liability for torture.  Gonzales rejected the applicability of the Geneva Conventions to prisoners taken during the "war against terrorism," terming some of the Geneva provisions "quaint."  The Guild said that Gonzales¹s contempt for accepted international law principles rendered him unfit to serve as the head of the Justice Department.  NLG President Michael Avery declared that, "The Constitution requires that the United States treat international treaties that it has signed as the supreme law of the land in the United States.  It is the solemn obligation of the Attorney General to make sure that the United States complies with international law.  It would be outrageous for the nation¹s top law enforcement officer to be contriving theories for American officials to avoid accountability for actions such as the torture of prisoners." The Guild also said that it was deeply concerned by Gonzales¹s record in reviewing death penalty cases in Texas for then Governor Bush.  An analysis of Gonzales¹s memos to the governor demonstrated that he repeatedly suppressed crucial facts that Bush should have considered in determining whether to grant clemency, such as "ineffective counsel, conflict of interest, mitigating evidence, even actual evidence of innocence." [more]