Justice Kennedy - who *may* be an unrepentant intellectual hack - has announced his retirement and the President - who *may* also be a hack (though decidedly nonintellectual) only capable of being produced at this point in our thrillingly roller coaster history - is apparently announcing Kennedy's nominated replacement on the Supreme Court tomorrow.
As a prospective law student, actual law student, lawyer, or legal blog follower, you should care. Really, really care. Like the coral reef is dying care.
Tons is at stake, I tell you. Tons. Don't you read the headlines? Roe is at issue. So are Amendments 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. Liberty itself, indeed. Women's rights are imperiled generally speaking. Have you heard a Margaret Atwood quote lately? When you sip your Sazerac and look out the window of the Million Dollar Express, what do you want to see? The United States of America, Lady Liberty's tits flopping like batter nozzles at a pancake house? Or Denmark, France, Russia, India, or Vietnam in all their poverty fiscal and moral? C'mon, man, don't you want to argue about the fundamental right to take a shit in public and fly a camera drone over an all girls school as our vaunted Founders intended?
Sure, the superficial on-paper amount of pseudo-debt for the bright new lawyer may appear imposing. Everyday concerns about how to best serve clients and make ends meet and meet one's personal needs, justifying the three years spent in academic safety fantasy land, may rise to the surface, bubbling like the champagne we all drink on a Friday night and at Sunday brunch.
Apathy is tempting. It's so, so tempting, just to throw one's hands up and say the appointment to the creme de la creme of lawyer jobs being run by a moneyed gaggle of uneducated politicized jackwads is too much to provoke caring. Just do one's job. To not be bothered that quasi-qualified judges leapfrog their excellent peers on purple squirrel ideology. To let them have their fun and just play other lucrative lawyer games, like winning slip 'n' falls or keeping gang-bangin' brokedicks out of jail.
But the Express requires commitment to civic virtue values morals things. The ABA tells me so. Pay attention. Have an opinion. The future's at stake! Blah blah blah! Read the ramblings of god-knows-how-many law professor blogs on Monday and Tuesday. How are you expected to converse with other dull-faced, sad-suit lawyers at receptions? What if you meet an impressionable young law student eager to talk shop on The Constitution? On the road to our shared riches, we all have an obligation to argue passionately for important things and stay abreast of such essential news. We can't let the relative shit on the windshield get in the way of our leaders' most sacred virtues. Have you thought about informing the public via newsletter or bus station rant?
Do pro bono work, kids. You'll feel better and meet your professional obligations, say your betters. They charge $500/hour. Heed their wisdom.
I am a little drunk but I love the law, really,, and I await with eager anticipation the next anointment to our circle of legal gods and high value red carpet law school speaking fees with the life apointment and ability to decide what The Constitution means. But it is all right, everything is all right, the struggle is finished. I have won the victory over myself. I love the law.
Don't you?
A coral reef is dying? Where? Can we file an injunction?
ReplyDeleteIt's funny how low-level attorneys are supposed to accept things in the interest of the profession that if they advised clients to do (work for free, accept completely one-sided deals, ignore monetary considerations etc.) would be total malpractice.
ReplyDelete