Judge Michael Mukasey's nomination for attorney general is no longer on the rocks, but the process is still a long, rocky road.
Late last week, Senators Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) announced their decision that they would vote to move Mukasey's nomination out of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Mukasey told Schumer in a private meeting that he would enforce any potential law in the future prohibiting waterboarding - a practice that convinces detainees they are in danger of drowning - and that was good enough for the senator.
Only this private assurance wasn't good enough for the ACLU - because Mukasey did not actually make any "commitment" against waterboarding. He only committed to stalling more on the topic. Congress has passed four laws and signed two treaties outlawing waterboarding. Mukasey shouldn't need one more law to tell him what Congress has already made clear: that waterboarding is torture, and that torture is illegal.
If Mukasey says he would easily embrace a law against waterboarding in the future, why can't he agree to the bans already in place? Nothing holds him to his word, and empty promises are not enough. The attorney general is tasked with upholding justice, the rule of law and the Constitution, not just rubber stamping the president's agenda.
Knowing the law is only part of the battle, is the bar really so low that the best we can hope for is an attorney general who makes private assurances that he is willing to follow law? The attorney general has the power to steer the very course of justice in this country. Mukasey could help to restore the rule of law - which has been eroding for years at the hands of an administration that has made more of an effort to destroy our rights than reinforce them - and restore honor to a disgraced Justice Department. But only if he takes a principled stand against torture.
We demand Michael Mukasey renounce waterboarding and enforce the laws already on the books ruling it illegal. And we are counting on the full Senate not to move his nomination forward until he says waterboarding is illegal, immoral and something he will never authorize as attorney general.
Loading comments… 
