Lawyer

Photo of Marty Barrack

Catholic lawyers are urgently needed today to defend the faithful against the slowly rising tide of persecution through laws against “hate speech,” laws that punish discrimination against sin, and content-specific laws that prohibit certain kinds of protests against abortion when the same protest at the same time in the same place on any other subject would be allowed.

Catholic lawyers are urgently needed to restore respect for objective moral principles. At present, the operation of law in society has deteriorated to the point where raw political power prevails. For example, if the Congress were to hold hearings on a statute providing: “The AIDS epidemic shall be managed according to the standard procedures applicable to all other disease epidemics,” a furor would erupt.

The “deep pockets” principle has become so much a part of legal practice today that it is hardly noticed anymore. Lawyers no longer sue the person who actually caused the problem but rather the corporation with the most money that can somehow be involved.

”Piling on” has become commonplace today. A group of federal and state attorneys-general get together and decide to attack a particular corporation or industry. When this happens to joggers in Central Park it is called “wilding,” but when it happens in federal and state courts it is called due process of law.

The cigarette industry is a case in point. If cigarettes are deadly to those who use them, they should be banned. Instead, the federal and state governments have gathered together to sue the industry. Now, if the attorneys-general meant what they said in court to obtain judgments against the cigarette companies, they would demand the judgment money all at once, forcing the cigarette companies out of business. But they have deliberately allowed the cigarette companies 25 years to pay. The only way they can raise money to pay these judgments is to sell cigarettes, both within the United States and all over the world. Therefore, the federal and state governments now have a vested interest in continued sales of cigarettes.

Once piling on becomes an accepted principle, we are on a slippery slope where no institution is immune. The day will come when the Catholic Church is the one piled on. Martin Niemoller, a Lutheran pastor near Berlin imprisoned by the Nazis, reminds us, “In Germany, they first came for the communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.”