Wednesday, December 09, 2020

All Lawyering Is Good In Precisely The Same Way

Another problem with Elite Law decreeing that there is nothing more noble than arguing that The Majesty Of The Law allows no recourse for the victims of child slavery for approximately my lifetime earnings, is that there are lawyers who actually do noble things. Public defenders who take their jobs seriously, immigration lawyers defending refugees, and, yes, even the elite lawyers who do something with their seemingly infinite side hustle time other than download sacks of cash into their bank accounts from monsters.

And this whole "IT IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL TO CRITICIZE LAWYERS" stuff is coming from them only when elite lawyers are being criticized. Republicans spent decades attacking "trial lawyers," who were quite often the people suing the child slavers, not the ones defending them, and this principled defense was much more muted.

The Neal Katyal position seems to be that it would be wrong to be a concentration camp guard, but there is nothing wrong with, in fact nothing more noble than, being on the legal team arguing the constitutionality of the concentration camps. The more highly paid the better.

That's a position, I guess. Not one the rest of us have to respect, though.