Steven G. Bradbury

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For other people named Steven Bradbury, see Steven Bradbury (disambiguation).
File:Steven G. Bradbury 2013-07-27.png
Bradbury in 2013

Steven G. Bradbury is an American lawyer and from 2005-2009 was acting director of the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) in the Department of Justice during George W. Bush's second term. During his tenure at the OLC, he authored a number of classified legal opinions authorizing the use of so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques", which are frequently described as torture.[1] Bradbury was nominated to head the OLC but individual Democratic Senators put holds on his nomination, preventing the full Senate from voting on it, and Democratic leaders in the Senate instituted pro forma sessions of the Senate during scheduled recesses to prevent the President from giving him a recess appointment.[2] Bradbury continued to serve as the acting chief of OLC until the end of the Bush Administration on January 20, 2009. He is currently a partner at the Washington, D.C office of Dechert LLP.[3][4]

Early life and education

Bradbury was born in 1958 in Portland, Oregon, the youngest of four children. His father died when he was 11 months old, and his mother raised him by working nights and taking in laundry to supplement their Social Security income.[5] He attended Washington High School in Portland from 1972 to 1976 where he was student body president his senior year.[6] Bradbury was the first in his family to graduate from college,[5] earning a B.A. from Stanford University in 1980 with a major in English.

After working in publishing and as a legal assistant in New York in the early 1980s, Bradbury returned to university for graduate school. He graduated from the University of Michigan Law School, where he received his J.D., magna cum laude, in 1988. He was Article Editor for the Michigan Law Review and Order of the Coif.[3]

Legal career

From 1988 to 1990, Bradbury worked as an associate at Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C. In 1990-1991, he served as a law clerk to Judge James L. Buckley on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. After working as an Attorney-Adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel, 1991-1992, he served as a law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court of the United States, 1992-1993.[3][5][7]

Following his clerkship for Justice Thomas, Bradbury practiced law with Kirkland & Ellis[5] in Washington, D.C., first as an associate from 1993 to 1994 and then as a partner from 1994 to 2004. In 1998, Bradbury was named one of the top 40 lawyers under 40 by Washingtonian magazine.[8] In his law practice at Kirkland & Ellis, he focused on antitrust (both mergers and litigation), securities law (including both class action litigation and regulatory investigations), and various other regulatory, constitutional, and commercial litigation matters, both at the trial and appellate levels.

In April 2004, Bradbury left private practice to join OLC, appointed as the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General under Assistant Attorney General Jack Goldsmith.[9]

Office of Legal Counsel

Bradbury was appointed Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for OLC in April 2004, and became the Acting Assistant Attorney General in 2005. He was nominated by President George W. Bush to be the Assistant Attorney General for OLC in June 2005. His nomination was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee in November 2005 but was never voted on by the full Senate, due to a number of Senate holds placed by Democratic congresspersons. Their resistance was due in part to his memoranda concerning the use of torture during the War on Terror and due to "unanswered questions about Mr. Bradbury’s role in" NSA warrantless surveillance programs.[2][9]

Bradbury authored numerous significant legal opinions for OLC, many of which are published on OLC’s Web site.[10] Among these opinions was one issued in August 2004 in which Bradbury concluded that the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution secures an individual right to keep and bear arms.[11] The reasoning of this opinion was later adopted by the Supreme Court of the United States in District of Columbia v. Heller.[12]

In 2007, Bradbury approved an OLC memo to the Social Security Administration that endorsed granting social security benefits to the non-biological child of a same-sex union.[13]

Bradbury received a number of awards and honors while at OLC, including the Edmund J. Randolph Award for outstanding service to the Department of Justice, the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service, the National Security Agency’s Intelligence Under Law Award, the Director of National Intelligence’s Intelligence Community Legal Award, and the Criminal Division’s Award for Outstanding Law Enforcement Partnerships.[3][4]

Memoranda concerning the War on Terror

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Main article: Torture memos

In May 2005, in response to requests from CIA lawyers, Bradbury authored several memoranda that confirmed that so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" did not constitute torture, including waterboarding, walling, stress positions, striking a prisoner,[14] exposure to extreme temperatures,[1] and forced sleep deprivation of up to 7½ days.[15][16][17][9][18] These memoranda found the CIA's practices to be lawful if applied in accordance with specified conditions, limitations, and safeguards, including those set forth in the agency’s interrogation procedures.[14] Bradbury's memoranda were described by Democrats as an attempt to sidestep anti-torture laws and subvert a 2004 public Justice Department legal opinion characterizing torture as "abhorrent".[1] These memoranda were publicly released by the Obama Administration on April 16, 2009. In response to the 2006 Supreme Court decision Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, Bradbury described the Geneva Conventions' prohibition of torture as "vague" and argued that military tribunals should admit evidence obtained during coercive interrogations.[19]

Near the end of the Bush Administration, Bradbury signed two memoranda for the files; these said that, during his tenure OLC had determined that certain legal propositions, previously stated in ten OLC opinions issued between 2001 and 2003 concerning executive power in the War on Terror, no longer reflected the views of OLC and "should not be treated as authoritative for any purpose." In addition, his memo said that some of the underlying opinions had been withdrawn or superseded and that "caution should be exercised" by the Executive Branch "before relying in other respects" on the other opinions that had not been superseded or withdrawn.[20][21]

Notwithstanding this partial rejection of earlier OLC memos, in August 2009, the DOJ released an additional memo authored by Steven Bradbury dated July 2007. This memo purported to address new developments, including intervening legislation such as the Military Commissions Act of 2006 and the December 2005 Detainee Treatment Act. In response to this and other new legislation, the 2007 memo provided legal authorization and OLC approval for six listed methods of interrogation, including temporary food deprivation (no less than 1,000 kcal/day), sleep deprivation by being forced to hold a "standing position for as many as four days", and several types of physical striking.[22][23][24]

Post-OLC career

Following his term in OLC, Bradbury returned to private practice as a partner at Dechert LLP in Washington, D.C., where he specializes in antitrust, securities litigation, general commercial litigation, and appellate matters.[3][4]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.[dead link]
  7. ↑ article
  8. ↑ Washingtonian (Sept. 1998), pp. 120-21.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ See 554 U.S. ___, 128 S. Ct. 2753 (2008). A review of the opinion for the Court in Heller reveals that it closely tracks the August 2004 OLC opinion in both the structure and substance of its legal analysis.[according to whom?] The OLC opinion featured prominently in the amicus brief filed by the United States in Heller.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  23. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  24. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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