Bybee- Bush's torture drafter- rules on torture in his position of appellate judge

Well I am sure this will not surprise anyone who has a clue who Bybee is- one of the drafters of the Bush torture papers who was then promoted to be a judge on the 9th circuit court of appeals. Well anyway Judge Bybee finally got a chance to rule on torture in a case in front of him- and guess what- Bybee did not think that being "chained at the ankles and the waist, shackled to a metal bed without a mattress, and forced to lie down and lap his meals from a bowl without using his hands. He said the cell was kept hot, poorly ventilated and in constant bright light. He tried to sleep when he could but felt his mind “deteriorating,” and the conditions “did in fact torture (him) mentally.”   amounted to torture...
But just in case someone else might think it did amount to torture Bybee also held (coincidentally) that since this conduct happened back in 2002 (right around when he was writing the torture memos) no one could have known that conduct like this would be considered  unconstitutional because the law had not been clearly established way back then-that torture was unconstitutional.

I would also suggest that Bybee had a conflict of interest in even ruling on this case as his decision could be seen as an attempt to buttress his own defense in the ongoing attempts to have him removed from the bench-his defense has been "I didn't know this kind of conduct was unconstitutional."

read the decision here