I want to thank Senator Graham, who served as an Air force lawyer
for decades for offering his perspective yesterday, he said, and
I quote the fact that you're representing Gitmo detainees is not
a problem with me, Senator Graham said.
Everyone deserves a lawyer. You're doing the country a great service
when you defend the most unpopular people.
And then Judge Roberts said during his confirmation hearing. It's
it's a tradition of the American borrow that goes back before the
founding of the country that lawyers are not identified with the
positions of their clients.
The most famous example probably was John Adams, chief justice said
who represented the British soldiers charged in the Boston massacre.
This sentiment is shared by lawyers across the political spectrum.
I want to give you an opportunity to address this issue because it
applies not just to get more detainees to your work as a public defender.
In terms of the
Wisdom, if acceptability of providing counsel in those cases and
what impact it's had on you personally in terms of your rulings on
the bench.
Thank you, Senator.
September. 11th was a tragic attack on this country.
We all lived through it. We saw
What happened and, um
There were many defenses.
Important defenses
that Americans undertook. There were Americans whose service came
in the form of military
Action.
My brother was one of
Those Americans. Those brave Americans who, um, decided to join the
military to defend our country. There are others of you in this body.
Who have military service. And I honor that.
To protect our country.
After 9 11. There were also
Lawyers who recognized that
Our nation's values were under attack that we couldn't let the terrorists
win by changing who we were fundamentally.
And what that meant was that
The people who were
Being accused by our government of having engaged in actions related
to this
Under our constitutional scheme were entitled to representation.
We're entitled to be treated fairly. That's what makes our system
The best in the world. That's what makes us exemplary.
I was in the federal public defender's office.
When the Supreme Court
excuse me right after the Supreme Court decided that individuals
who were detained at Guantanamo Bay
By the president could
Seek review.
Of their detention.
And those cases started coming in.
And
Federal public defenders don't get to pick their clients.
They have to represent.
Whoever comes in, and it's a service.
That's what you do As a federal public defender. You are
Standing up for the constitutional value of representation.
And so I represented as an appellate defender, some of those detainees
in the early days the legal landscape was very uncertain.
This had never happened before. Not only the attack but also the
use of executive authority to detain people in this way, and there
were a lot of questions.
That the court was asking the Supreme Court had taken a series of
cases.
To try to understand what are the limits of executive authority,
which is important. All of our liberty is at stake if we don't get
it right in terms of what
The executive can do.
The Supreme Court is recently reaffirmed that the Constitution does
not get suspended in times of emergency, and so lawyers were trying
to help the court to figure out
Figure out what the executive's power was in this circumstance and
as an appellate defender.
I worked on the habeas petitions of some of these detainees. My petitions
were
Virtually identical because we had very little information part of
the issue.
Would, at the very beginning of these cases was that most of the
factual information was classified.
So defense counsel or pointed to represent these defendants. We had
no facts.
And I was making legal arguments about
The circumstances. That is what gave rise to my representation, and
I
We just emphasize that
That's the role of a criminal defense lawyer.
Criminal defense lawyers make arguments on behalf of their clients