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Although I cannot give you a definitive answer, I will offer you my thoughts on the subject. The first thing to realize about lawyers is that their primary focus in on their clients and the interests of their clients. So those lawyers explicitly engaged in some aspect of the curtailments on our freedom would of course have something to…
Although I cannot give you a definitive answer, I will offer you my thoughts on the subject. The first thing to realize about lawyers is that their primary focus in on their clients and the interests of their clients. So those lawyers explicitly engaged in some aspect of the curtailments on our freedom would of course have something to say but only on behalf of those they represent. So I believe your supposition that lawyers as a class are so eager to jump in and argue matters on behalf of the public and good order is but dream. Lawyers are like everyone else in terms of their perception of how their words and actions might affect their professional standing and the positions they hold. And in that regard, I have to tell you that in the current climate, there is tremendous fear that anyone speaking out against governmental policies is potentially subject to losing their jobs or at least having their livelihoods adversely affected. Lawyers are already being subject to disbarment simply because of the clients they represent and the manner of that representation. As you know, doctors and other medical professionals are having their careers and employment adversely affected by publicly speaking out about their views that are at variance with what the current Administration advocates. My worst fear is that we are already living in a fascist police state where the rule of law is only applicable to those who are favored. Consider the hundreds of individuals who are still rotting in DC jails because of having been involved in some aspect of what transpired in Washington, DC in January, 2020 or merely the suspicion of having been so involved. They are being held without trial and without an opportunity to appear before a magistrate via an elementary application of a habeas corpus claim. At least President Lincoln explicitly suspended Habeas Corpus during the Civil War but these days that has apparently been suspended sub silentio. I will confess to you that I no longer enter the District of Columbia. The reason is that there is still a manhunt on for 850 or so individuals who were in the District of Columbia in January 2020 and may have been involved in a trespass of a government building or involved in the riot that took place. DC has facial recognition software that it employs in conjunction with extensive surveillance of the District. My concern in this regard is that if I resembled even somewhat anyone whom the police are looking for, I could be thrown in jail with no recourse to get out. You might call this paranoia but then again, even paranoiacs are occasionally being followed. That I haven't entered the District of Columbia in many years would not help me in the event that I had been arrested. And who can gainsay the horrific treatment I might then have to endure? These are the worst times I have ever experienced in my lifetime in terms of the loss of normative American liberties. Those in power express themselves much like Humpty Dumpty in Lewis Carroll's "Through The Looking Glass" in his colloquy with Alice. "Words mean what they say they mean, no more no less. The issue is who shall be the master, me or the words?" I am not unhappy to be on the back 9 of this life. I worry for my children and grandchildren who may be obliged to live in a dark age and in an America that I no longer recognize.
Barry - I truly appreciate this response. A pleasure to read.
I guess I felt that individuals had approached law firms to seek assistance with fighting the mandates and other restrictions. I just thought they would speak out based on how many people were approaching them with problems. But there was silence.
I work in healthcare. I did not realize attorneys are under threat of disbarment based on who they are representing. That. . . that is quite depressing.
We have forgotten what is right. We have forgotten our purpose. I feel much like you. I worry about what is to come. Reasoning, logic and evidence are useless against these people. This won’t get turned around because people suddenly realize the danger we are in.
This is going to get painful. I would feel better about things if I thought that pain would wake people up but I’m not even sure of that.
You should know that in days gone by, when I had little to fear from the Leviathan State, I put myself in harm's way often. When I was a minor official in the Chief Counsel's office, I woman who worked there told he that she had been improperly solicited by the Deputy Director for whom she worked. She told me she was leaving as a consequence. I proceeded to disclose his obnoxious behavior to the Administrative head, stating that if nothing were done about this I would make both his life and those who covered for him miserable. He was told that if he were ever to make an unwanted sexual advance on anyone, he would be sent to Alaska. When I was in law school, a woman who worked as a secretary, fearing for her job, told me that a law school professor, a black man, had threatened her if she did not accede to his sexual overtures. I went to the assistant dean and told him if this man were not removed from the school, there would be hell to pay. His contract was not renewed. As a lawyer in Chicago, when I determined that the senior partner of my firm had committed tax fraud, I resigned immediately and brought the matter to the attention of the criminal section of the IRS. He was tried and convicted of tax fraud and went to jail where he died. As a senior official in the Chief Counsel's Office, I resigned to protest reorganization changes that brought politics explicitly into the administration of the tax laws. My letter of resignation to the Commissioner's Office included Latin which I did not translate but which they had translated for them. As a tax partner at Deloitte, I resigned because the Firm would not remove a moral derelict who not only was in charge of my office but who was also on the Firm's Board. Efforts were made to assuage me, buy off my silence but I do not bluff. Instead I disclosed the entire sordid episode to 350 of my partners. I got death threats for exposing our dirty linen. So in the 30+ years after I stopped representing criminals whom I did not like, I resigned from all 3 positions I had held. Some might conclude that I simply could not hold onto a job. These days though, I suppose I am well out of harm's way. My wife though knows what I am capable of if I am ever once again to find myself in the arena.
Just a damn shame society has come to this.
My husband was a gov official. If an employee had even a dui…they were GONE! The times, they are a changing…and not for the best.
So true & so frightening.