THE UNITED STATES has paid a devastating price for the Bush administration's use of torture and extrajudicial detentions. These questions go right to the heart of how we fight terrorism and who we are as a nation. That's why they should be front and center in our presidential campaign, and that's an important reason why I am supporting Barack Obama's campaign.

Here's what the American people need to understand about torture: it doesn't work. As an interrogation method, it is far more likely to get you bad information than good intelligence. It sets back our moral leadership in the world, diminishing our standing, our cooperation from friends and our leverage over repressive regimes. Our military recognizes this, and that is why the Army field manual prohibits torture and the "enhanced interrogation techniques" that news reports suggest have been authorized for use by our intelligence professionals.

The same is true of indefinite detentions outside the rule of law. Our prison at Guantanamo Bay has become a flashpoint for anti-American anger around the world, as have the "secret prisons" that we have reportedly set up. And for all that it has cost us in the battle of ideas, it has been ineffective in bringing terrorists to justice. There has not been a single conviction for a terrorist act at Guantanamo. And our embrace of an extrajudicial system sends a message to the American people and the world that we do not have confidence in our Constitution, our courts and our system of military justice to face the terrorist threat.

Fortunately, there is a clear solution to the mess that the Bush administration has made: reclaim our values and restore the rule of law. And on these critical issues, Barack Obama has spoken with the most clarity, conviction and courage of any candidate in this race.

Obama has rejected the use of torture without equivocation, calling for one standard on torture across the U.S. government. He knows that when you start to carve out exceptions for "enhanced interrogation techniques" you are giving interrogators a green light to torture. Interrogators -- whether military or civilian -- must have clear direction from the top. That's why it was unacceptable for Attorney General Michael Mukasey to hedge on the question of whether waterboarding qualified as torture. And that's why we should not choose a candidate who equivocates in his rejection of these methods, or changes positions on questions as fundamental as whether or not the United States should torture.

As a long-time professor of constitutional law, Obama is the candidate with the strongest commitment to the rule of law. We have convicted many terrorists in our courts -- from the 1993 World Trade Center bombers, to terrorists who helped plot the attacks on our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, to John Walker Lindh, the American who aided the Taliban. As the former judge advocate general of the Navy, I have complete confidence in the capacity of the Constitution and Uniform Code of Military Justice to provide a superior framework for dealing with terrorists than the Bush administration's ad hoc approach.

Obama has been unequivocal on these issues. As President, he will close down Guantanamo and secret prisons. He will restore habeas corpus. He will spare no effort in hunting down terrorists, and he has complete confidence in the ability of our civilian courts and judge advocate generals to deliver swift and severe justice to enemies of the United States. Because of this, we will be more secure at home and more able to support the rule of law around the world when Obama is President.

Our nation is at a turning point. Surely, there will be candidates who accuse anyone who opposes torture and indefinite detentions of being "soft" -- of lacking the "toughness" to protect America. Obama will never trim his sails or adjust his position because of these attacks. On the contrary, he is eager to take this debate head-on and to make his case to the American people that the way to get tough on terror is to once again be a nation of laws and to once again offer moral leadership to the world.

America must never become a nation symbolized by a torture victim standing on a box or by a prison camp where we don't tell people why they are being held. At this moment in history, we desperately need leadership that reclaims our future so that freedom triumphs over fear and justice triumphs over terror. I have looked closely at what the candidates have to say on these issues, and I strongly believe that Barack Obama will reclaim this future for America.

John Hutson is president and dean of the Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord.