I was doing a little reading about some of the legal architects of the current legal framework allowing the President to order duress on detainees, and I got interested in John Yoo. From '01 to '03 he worked in the Office of Legal counsel, and he was a contributor to the memos that defined executive power in the boradest possible sense. The following exchange made me sit up and take notice:

Cassel: If the president deems that he's got to torture somebody, including by crushing the testicles of the person's child, there is no law that can stop him?

Yoo: No treaty...

Cassel: Also no law by Congress -- that is what you wrote in the August 2002 memo...

Yoo: I think it depends on why the President thinks he needs to do that.

Thoughts? Are there, in fact, any legal impediments to the President of the United States ordering a child's testicles crushed? I'm not saying he would do so, but does he have the right to do so?