Under the Color of Law

Under the Color of Law constitutes a full and critical scholarly commentary to the text of five key Bush administration legal memoranda formative of U.S. counterterrorism policy from 2001 to 2009. This volume is dedicated to the idea that these documents are worthy of being read and critically examined in themselves as primary text, precisely because the act of critical assessment may yield meaningful policy reform in the ongoing debate facing the nation over balancing security interests with the preservation of civil liberties. This volume is intended to provide counterpoint for and antithesis to positions vigorously defended by President Bush's attorneys working at the OLC inside the Department of Justice, and is designed to be used primarily in conjunction with and examined as response to the Bush-era documents themselves.