John Hutson John Dudley Hutson is a retired United States Navy rear admiral , attorney , and former Judge Advocate General of the Navy . He is the outgoing dean and president of University of New Hampshire School of Law in Concord , New Hampshire , having served in the position since 2000 . Dean Hutson holds a B . A . from Michigan State University , a J . D . from the University of Minnesota Law School , and an LL . M . from Georgetown University Law Center . He has discussed having been asked about running for the United States House of Representatives in the second district of New Hampshire , but denies that he intends to do so . Despite being a lifelong Republican , Hutson was a featured speaker at the 2008 Democratic National Convention on August 25 and August 27 , 2008 , who later announced that he was switching parties and endorsed Senator Barack Obama . He was mentioned as a possible Republican replacement for U . S . Senator Judd Gregg , prior to Gregg ' s nomination to be U . S . Secretary of Commerce in the Obama Administration . The Senate vacancy was to have been filled by Bonnie Newman , but Gregg ultimately withdrew his candidacy for the position . Open letter to President Bush of September 7 , 2004 . On September 7 , 2004 Hutson and seven other retired officers wrote an open letter to President Bush expressing their concern over the number of allegations of abuse of prisoners in U . S . military custody . In it they wrote : January 2005 Congressional testimony . In January 2005 , Dean Hutson , along with Yale Law School dean Harold Koh , testified before the U . S . Senate Judiciary Committee in opposition to the appointment of Alberto Gonzales as attorney general of the United States , because of his alleged role in attempting to provide legal guidance to the U . S . military justifying abusive interrogation practices , including that the War on Terror " renders obsolete " and " renders quaint " aspects of the Geneva Conventions . In November 2005 , his activities led the NHCLU to name Hutson their recipient of that year ' s Bill of Rights Award ; Hutson had previously been the featured speaker at the 2004 annual meeting of that organization . July 14 , 2005 Congressional testimony . Hutson testified before the Senate Armed Services Personnel Subcommittee , offering his opinion on the detention of " unlawful combatant s " . Hutson said that he had been an early supporter of trial by military commission — provided those military commissions were conducted fairly . But he thought that the proposed process was flawed , and there had been too long a delay . In his prepared statement he argued that the captives should face charges before Military Courts Martial . And he argued that if they were to be convicted , they should be convicted using a high standard of proof . He also argued that the captives who were not charged should not be held indefinitely . Scalia recusal . On March 28 , 2006 Hutson , and five other retired officers , called on US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia to recuse himself from considering Hamdan v . Rumsfeld . On March 27 , 2006 comments Scalia had made on the Guantanamo detainees and whether they were entitled to the protections of the Geneva Conventions were widely republished . The officers felt that Scalia ' s comments showed he had already prejudged the merits of Hamdan ' s case before hearing the arguments in court . The Washington Post observed that while a Justice was required to recuse himself or herself when they had a conflict of interest , the decision as to whether recusal was necessary was left to the discretion of the Justice in question . July 2006 Congressional testimony . The " Boston Globe " reported on July 11 , 2006 that Hutson was scheduled to testify before the House and Senate Armed Services Committees . The Globe reported , at length , comments Hutson had made regarding a memo from Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon R . England telling Armed Forces personnel to comply with the Geneva Conventions in its treatment of captives : " " It kind of takes the wind out of the sails of people who say the Congress should simply authorize what the president had done in his original order . I ' d like to see something coming of the CIA or Negroponte similarly . " " Comments on Bush plan for new Guantanamo military commissions . The " Washington Post " reports that Hutson commented on a draft bill from the Bush administration for new Guantanamo military commission s to replace those struck down by the US Supreme Court . According to the Washington Post : " A second chance to get it right " . Hutson published an article entitled : " " Detainee treatment : a second chance to get it right " " , on August 3 , 2006 . Ghosts of Abu Ghraib . Hutson was one of the lawyers and former Navy Officers interviewed for the HBO documentary " Ghosts of Abu Ghraib " .