Presidential candidates and a Supreme Court justice invoked a TV character to justify torture.

Evidence

It became part of the public discourse. Kelly M. Greenhill, in an editorial in the Los Angeles Times, reported that during the May 15, 2007, Republican presidential debate, candidate Tom Tancredo said about the War on Terror, “I am looking for Jack Bauer at this point”; and Rudolph Giuliani argued that interrogators should use “any method they can think of.” Giuliani’s statement was met with applause. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, in a speech defending the use of torture, stated, “Jack Bauer saved Los Angeles… . He saved hundreds of thousands of lives… . Are you going to convict Jack Bauer?” — Evelyn Alsultany, Arabs and Muslims in the Media, 295

Categorization

• CANDY: That presidential candidates and a Supreme Court justice defended torture by citing the fictional Jack Bauer is a darkly funny fact for any conversation about pop culture.