DECEMBER 3, 2020 – Yesterday I received a call from a lawyer asking me for advice about a case he’s working on. His client was pressing to “buy time” by bringing what I call a “monkey-wrench” motion to derail an upcoming hearing on the opposing side’s motion to dismiss. Although the lawyer offered to pay me for my time (because one gets what one pays for), I declined—partly out of professional courtesy; also because I respect the lawyer and might want his advice on some future matter.
What we realized as we got into the matter and bounced ideas around was that we were ultimately grappling with ethical challenges. That is, we were striving for the “right” balance between competing ethical imperatives: zealous advocacy on the one hand and good faith litigation on the other; the client’s best interests vs. the lawyer’s likelihood of getting paid (withdrawing from litigation requires court approval, which approval may be denied if withdrawal would prejudice the client); doing right by the client vs. preserving one’s professional reputation among the bevy of other lawyers in the case and . . . the judge assigned to the case and to whom unrelated cases involving other clients have been (or will in the future) be assigned.
After the half hour call, I couldn’t help but contrast that earnest discussion about legal ethics with the disgusting clown show directed by the sitting president of the United States and acted out by such intellectual (and perhaps physical) thugs as the president’s lawyers. Sadly, the circus act is a foundational attack on democracy. The bad faith (baseless) accusations are the equivalent of a wrecking ball swinging at the two cornerstones of our system: elections and the rule of law. Did you happen to lose at the polls by millions of votes? Not a problem. Just shout “fraud” and tens of millions of people will jump on your junk cart. No need for evidence, let alone proof, just a repetitious shout-out. And if it appears that your goof-ball shout-out team can’t get any traction with any judges—even Republican appointees—then start lining up pardons for yourself, your family, and your cronies who’ve been taking advantage of four years of power to stuff their pockets at donor and taxpayer expense.
Enablers of this contemptuous attack on democracy—make that, “on integrity”—should be ashamed. The lawyers should be sanctioned. The crime family and cronies should be required to undertake four years of community service, starting at testing centers, ERs, pandemic morgues and the food banks with the longest queues. Republican office holders who rode the junk wagon to our national places of shame should also be held to account. And rightwing media that peddle lies and distortions to gullible masses should be subjected to rigorous enforcement of a revival of the Fairness Doctrine.
The current clown show must be stopped before the ethics that undergird our way of life are reduced to crushed peanut shells inside the circus tent that was once a respected nation.
(Remember to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.)
© 2020 by Eric Nilsson
