“On August 1, 2002, in an infamous memo written largely by [Deputy Chief of the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), John] Yoo but signed by Assistant Attorney General Jay S. Bybee, the OLC redefined the crime of torture to make it all but impossible to commit. …If all else failed, Yoo and Bybee advised, the President could argue that torture was legal because he authorized it. …Under this interpretation, U.S. laws and treaties banning torture…were deemed unconstitutional. …By this logic, the President was literally above the law. …Harold Koh, the dean of Yale Law School, described it as ‘perhaps the most clearly erroneous legal opinion I have ever read.’ ”
– Jane Mayer, The Dark Side, Pages 151-152