May 17, 2008 5:43 pm US/Pacific
Protesters Rally Against UC Berkeley Law Professor
BERKELEY (AP) ―
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John Yoo, professor of law at University of California at Berkeley School of Law, gestures while speaking on the Bush presidency and the constitutional powers of war 22 February 2006 at the Heritage Foundation in Washington.
Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images
Dozens of protesters, some donning black hoods and orange prisoner jumpsuits, demanded that the University of California, Berkeley's law school fire a professor whose they said devised the legal basis for the Bush administration's use of torture in overseas military prisons.
The professor, John Yoo, worked for the U.S. Department of Justice from 2001 to 2003, when his critics say he wrote the "torture memos" that provided legal framework for the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The protest took place during the law school's graduation Saturday. School officials said earlier in the week that Yoo, who is tenured, would not be there.
Graduates and their families were generally supportive of the protests, but many also said they supported Yoo's right to teach.
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