Experts debate Yoo's legal culpability

WASHINGTON, March 9 (UPI) -- Questions are swirling in legal circles over what, if anything, should happen to U.S. government lawyers who are found to have given flawed advice, experts say.

The controversy centers on John Yoo, one-time legal adviser to former U.S. President George W. Bush, whose legal opinions asserting sweeping presidential powers in anti-terrorism efforts have since been criticized as grievously flawed and giving a blank check to what some call illegal acts carried out by the Bush administration, The New York Times reported Monday.

Legal experts say the questions now facing them include what is the level responsibility of such lawyers and should they suffer punishment?

"I think the legal profession in the United States has been seriously hurt by their conduct," Stephen Gillers, a professor of legal ethics at New York University, told the Times, calling Yoo's disputed legal opinions "sloppy, one-sided and incompetent" and adding, "There has to be accountability."

Others, such as John Eastman, the dean of Chapman University law school and a friend of Yoo, assert singling out such government lawyers is political and unfair, adding, "It's unfortunate, and quite frankly it's dangerous."

Yoo refused comment to the Times.