Dear Justice “Pulls the Ladder Up Behind Him” Scalia

(Today @jsnprkn sent me a very thought-provoking post from the Wall Street Journal Law Blog. It relates and asks readers to respond to comments made by Justice Antonin Scalia about the quality of legal counsel, some of which follow.)

“I mean there’d be a, you know, a defense or public defender from Podunk, you know, and this woman is really brilliant, you know. Why isn’t she out inventing the automobile or, you know, doing something productive for this society?

I mean lawyers, after all, don’t produce anything. They enable other people to produce and to go on with their lives efficiently and in an atmosphere of freedom. That’s important, but it doesn’t put food on the table and there have to be other people who are doing that. And I worry that we are devoting too many of our very best minds to this enterprise.”

First, Your Honor, I gotta say that the automobile? Already invented. Even us ladies of Podunk know that. And while I’m sure you’d rather have us inventing combustion engines for lugging your ass around instead of writing amicus briefs, that’s not what we’re here for. Take this really brilliant defender from right here in Podunkland: Roxanne Conlin. Give her clients a call. Every last one of their wronged, downtrodden selves that she helped find justice. Call them and find out if they’d rather trade a new hedge fund or tractor or something more “productive” in your mind for the fundamental difference she made in their lives.

This is why people enter the law. Do you need to be reminded that 35 of the 55 framers of the Constitution were lawyers? The goal is so much more than to “enable other people to produce and to go on with their lives efficiently and in an atmosphere of freedom.” Your years on the bench must have made you forget your heart.

We choose the law to strike down bigotry, discrimination and ignorance of those who came before. We choose the law because it brings fairness and justice into the lives of those who have been wronged today. We choose the law because the battles we face in the courtroom will shape the fates of those who come after us.

While we are not the ones who sewed the seeds of the corn which fed the cow which gave the steak that lands on your plate, we are the ones who protect those who do from harm. Here in Podunk we know that more than anyone. We know our food like we know our neighbors, and we sure as hell know our right and wrong. That’s why great minds choose the law, Your Honor, because of their fundamental desire to see justice served.

All right, back to studying.

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