When people gathered last May for the commencement ceremony at the University of California at Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law, they were greeted by chanting activists from the National Lawyers Guild and other left-wing groups. The university, protesters shouted, should fire John C. Yoo, a tenured professor who has taught at the law school since 1993. While on leave at the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel between 2001 and 2003, Mr. Yoo drafted what have come to be known as the "torture memos"--a series of secret memoranda that gave benediction to President George W. Bush's interrogation and surveillance policies. Some scholars believe that Mr. Yoo's memoranda were so shoddy that they amounted to professional misconduct. At the center of the storm sits Christopher Edley Jr., dean of Boalt Hall, who is fielding anxious phone calls from faculty members and students. If the Justice Department's review includes serious allegations, Mr. Edley says, the university might be justified in formally reviewing Mr. Yoo's extracurricular activities. Such a move very likely would be triggered by the universitywide Academic Senate; the dean cannot initiate it. Mr. Edley emphasizes that he is speaking hypothetically, and he says that any punishment need not necessarily include revocation of tenure. The university's rules allow far milder sanctions, including written censure and a reduction in salary. According to several accounts, some students have recently begun to shun Mr. Yoo's classes. But other students, even on the left, say that Mr. Yoo is a very strong teacher, and they support Mr. Edley's view that the university should wait for the Justice Department's report before taking any action.