Cross-posted at the Huffington Post.

Don’t ask Attorney General Michael Mukasey to speak at a graduation ceremony if you want a milquetoast speech extolling the virtues of community service, sun screen, or calls to your mother. He came to Boston College Law School, where I teach, last Friday and offered a substantive, and deeply troubling, message to our graduates.

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Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey spoke to Boston College Law School’s Class of 2008 yesterday. Here are his remarks:

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Updated on Friday, May 23, 2008 at 11:35AM by Eagleionline

A “Graduation Handout” is being passed around by a few faculty and students at the graduation events today. The handout refers to past articles on the issue of waterboarding by Professors from BC and other law schools.

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By Jesse Stellato, May 21, 2008 

The BLT: The Blog of LegalTimes, reported today that Attorney General Mukasey will speak about ethics at Friday’s commencement. Referencing an unamed offical at the Justice Department, author Pedro Ruz Gutierrez wrote that Mukasey “will discuss the ethical responsibilities of being a lawyer, especially in the complex area of national security.”

By Jesse Stellato, May 18, 2008

Eagleionline has obtained a draft of Professor Daniel Kanstroom’s upcoming article: “On ‘Waterboarding’: Legal Interpretation and the Continuing Struggle for Human Rights.” The abstract appears below.

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Legal Times reports that morale inside the Department of Justice has risen as a result of Attorney General Michael Mukasey’s initiatives.

Among the actions Mukasey is credited with during his five months on the job:

• Supporting DOJ Pride, an organization representing gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender employees by allowing it to post fliers on bulletin boards, reach out to its members via e-mail, and hold its annual ceremonies in the Great Hall. These activities were prohibited under the tenure of his predecessors, John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales.
• In response to the past U.S. Attorney firings scandal, Mukasey reminded all personnel that there should be no political interference in prosecutions and to be mindful of the timing of election-year investigations.
• Praising the importantance of the Civil Rights Division’s mission and work, which has been weakened over the past seven years. Mukasey has called it “one of the defining institutions” of the department.

Still, the waterboarding controversey remains front and center for Mukasey’s critics.

Despite shoring up support from within, Mukasey has yet to win over critics outside of the department who say the attorney general will be remembered for his unwavering views on waterboarding, warrantless surveillance, and expanded presidential powers.

“He’ll simply be perceived as one of those attorneys general that have put the White House policy goals ahead of the law,” says Nancy Baker, a professor at New Mexico State University who researches U.S. attorneys general and wrote a book about Ashcroft’s tenure.

BCLS isn’t the only law school facing controversey over this year’s commencement speaker. According to “legal tabloid” Above the Law, students at Northwestern University School of Law are up in arms over the selection of alum Jerry Springer as their graduation speaker.

While BCLS students and faculty have engaged in heated debates about international human rights and torture in light of Attorney General Mukasey’s silence on waterboarding, the Northwestern crowd have been just as engaged about the symbolism of their speaker.

 A sample of the anti-Jerry protesters:

Our graduation from law school will be a lifetime memory, and our ceremony will be etched forever in our hearts and minds as we remember back on our special day. With that being said, I and our fellow classmates wish to express our deep sense of anger, embarrassment and surprise to hear that it would not be a State Senator, or Supreme Court Justice or Civil Rights leader or the like addressing us with words of wisdom and support and encouragement as we enter the next stage of our lives and careers. Instead, the sensationalist, ratings-seeking, instigator of daytime television.

And in favor of the former Cinci mayor:

For the past year, I have been working as a legal intern for the Jerry Springer show … and wanted to speak a bit more about the content of the show. I realize that it is outlandish, and offensive to some … but it is what it is. The people on the show are not being exploited — they are there willingly, and they know exactly what they are getting into (I know this because [redacted] and I have personally read and explained legal releases to every single one of them). From the “riot lesbian” to the “kung-fu hillbilly” to the pole dancers we hire for special occasions - they are entertainers, they are enjoying themselves, and they are well compensated for their time. Jerry Springer is not going to give a graduation speech about lesbian midget strippers — he is intelligent and quick-witted and I have no doubt that he will deliver a perfectly appropriate graduation speech, whether or not you enjoy his show.

 By Jesse Stellato, April 3, 2008

How do you feel about the process used to select this year’s commencment speaker? Earlier this week, Eagleionline asked students, alumni, and members of the faculty, staff and administration of Boston College Law School a series of questions through Eagleionline about BC Law’s commencement ceremonies in general and the 2008 ceremony in particular.

Yesterday, Eagleionline analyzed the quantiative component of the survey, which asked “Do you support having attorney General Mukasey speak at this year’s commencement?”

In addition, Eagleionline analyzed the survey’s first optional open-ended question: “What quality or qualities do you look for in a commencement speaker?”

Today, we survey the answers to the second open-ended question: “ How do you feel about the process used to select this year’s commencment speaker?” More below the fold…

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By Jesse Stellato, April 2, 2008

On Monday and Tuesday of this week, Eagleionline asked students, alumni, and members of the faculty, staff and administration of Boston College Law School a series of questions about BC Law’s commencement ceremonies in general and the 2008 ceremony in particular.

Eagleionline conducted the survey in response to a request from a member of the Class of 2008 to collect some non-anecdotal evidence on the subject.

The survey results appear below the fold. More complete analysis, as well as raw data, will be published throughout the week.

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Following the healthy discussion BCLS has had regarding the fact that Attorney General Mukasey’s is slated to be our commencement speaker, I find it timely to note that the so-called 2003 “torture memo”—granting the executive branch and Pentagon broad leeway in its interrogation methods of terror suspects—was declassified and released to the public yesterday. The document, available here and here and here and here (four separate parts), according to the Guardian, “outlines legal justification for military interrogators to use harsh tactics against al-Qaida and Taliban detainees overseas so long as they did not specifically intend to torture their captives. It argues that poking, slapping or shoving would not give rise to criminal liability, and also appears to defend the use of mind-altering drugs that do not produce “an extreme effect”.” [1] Part of memo even explicitly states, ““Even if an interrogation method arguably were to violate a criminal statute, the Justice Department could not bring a prosecution because the statute would be unconstitutional as applied in this context.” Yale Law School professor Eugene R. Fidell told the New York Times ““This is a monument to executive supremacy and the imperial presidency. It’s also a road map for the Pentagon for fending off any prosecutions.” [2]

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With the headline “A Law School Descends Into Liberal Rudeness,” the Wall Street Journal published reader letters in response to the op-ed last week criticizing BCLS opposition to the selection of Attorney General Mukasey as commencement speaker.

In stating their reasons for wishing to reject Michael Mukasey from speaking on their campus, these representatives of the school’s faculty seem insufficiently steeped in secular law while being quite flexible with the religious laws they allegedly or tacitly embrace as advocates for a “reputable” religious institution.

What does Boston College Law School really think about this year’s commencement ceremony? As “James” pointed out on Eagleionline last Thursday, Boston College’s undergraduate newspaper The Heights quoted Dean Garvey in their print edition as saying that he believes that “the overwhelming majority of students support having Mukasey speak at their commencement.” The Heights also quoted Adam Baker ‘08, President of the Law Students Association (LSA). “The opinions of the students have really varied quite a bit,” Baker said.

To help sort out public opinion on this matter, Eagleionline was recently asked to do a short survey on the subject. We’d love it if you took the time to fill it out. The required questions will take you literally ten seconds to complete. The time you put into the open-ended questions is, of course, up to you.

All responses will be compiled anonymously, and we’ll be publishing the results on Wednedsay.

Click here to take the survey. 

In an article titled “Mukasey Draws Ire of Boston College Law Profs”, US News is the latest national news agency to report on the controversy surrounding this year’s commencement speaker, Attorney General Michael Mukasey.  The article does not make an argument pro or con for Mukasey.  Rather, it just summarizes the recent BC Heights editorial and highlights one professor’s opinion.

 http://www.usnews.com/blogs/paper-trail/2008/3/27/mukasey-draws-ire-of-boston-college-law-profs.html

BC undergrad newspaper The Heights gave news coverage to the Mukasey controversey today for the first time. Dean Garvey is quoted in the piece as saying that he believes that “the overwhelming majority of students support having Mukasey speak at their commencement.” [Ed. Note: This portion of the article is cut off from the html version. For full text, see the pdf of the print edition.]

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BCLS and the BC Initiative for the Study of the Constitution will sponsor a lecture this evening by Harvard Law School professor Jack Goldsmith.

Of relevance to the waterboarding controversey, Goldsmith is the lawyer responsible for the withdrawl of the Bybee Memo on torture. That memo is credited for creating the loose legal restrictions on torture that permitted the CIA to conduct waterboarding as part of its enhanced interrogation techniques.

Background Info

New York Times Magazine Profile

Excerpts from The Terror Presidency

Interview on PBS Bill Moyers Journal

New York Times Guide to the Torture Memos