DECEMBER 19, 2019 – Earlier this week I had a spirited conversation with each of four lawyers, including a current sitting district court judge and a retired Minnesota Supreme Court Justice. One exchange was over an impromptu lunch; the others were in downtown Minneapolis skyways. I’ve known each of these people for years, having practiced in the same firm with two of them; having worked closely as co-counsel with a third; having talked much with a fourth aboard my bus and in social settings. The four are universally respected by fellow members of the bench and bar.
With each I engaged in extended conversation about the state of affairs in Washington. Each expressed grave concern over what’s happened to the country—the unraveling of respect for the rule of law; the sycophantic tribalism that has swept across the Republic.
One of the lawyers I encountered was himself in numb despair and resignation. He’d followed closely the unfolding evidence since news of Trump’s Ukraine call first broke. Now his disgust with denial and deflection was so great, he couldn’t bear to read or hear about the impeachment proceedings.
I pursued an “intervention.” Though as despairing as he, I drew on a quickly imagined reservoir of hope. There in the skyway leading into the Hennepin County Government Center, I gave this depressed lawyer the pep talk that a football coach gives his team at halftime when they’re down, 35 to 7. I told him we had no choice but to rush and tackle; run, pass, and catch the ball for long yards and touchdowns; play smart and hard until the clock runs out.
“Keep your game face on at all times,” I said. “The country needs us to prevail over the erosion and corrosion of norms and rules. We who work the wheels of American justice and jurisprudence need to remind ourselves that such work is as essential to the defense of democracy as is shouldering a weapon against an invading force.”
In the daily grind it’s all too easy to lose energy, perspective, and inspiration; to lose touch with the essential underpinnings of our work. If one downcast lawyer cites the unraveling of respect for the law; if another describes how contempt for the law by the president has led to a “let’s see what I can get away with” attitude in local matters—then more than ever, we lawyers must meet the challenge and buttress the foundations of our society.
In our offices; in conference rooms and the courtrooms; in classrooms and everyday conversation, each of us needs to talk about the rule of law. As we mentor younger lawyers, we need to explain how the Rules of Evidence embody critical thinking; how the Rules of Civil and Criminal Procedure ensure due process; how substantive law provides order and predictability among the numberless interests that compete in a free and open society—thus keeping that society free and open.
We lawyers need to recognize our duty to shore up a democracy at risk.
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© 2019 Eric Nilsson
