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Republicans Unleash a Cynical Attack on Our Legal System

John Micek on

Embedded in his comments were the assumption that there is something wrong with an attorney carrying out their constitutionally charged duty to provide an effective defense of someone accused of heinous crimes. It’s the same hope we all harbor if, God forbid, we ever find ourselves in the dock: That our attorney will work as hard, and impartially, as humanly possible, to secure a favorable verdict on our behalf.

If Cotton’s statements were merely a cynical aberration, that would be one thing.

But Republicans, who have tried to claim the mantle of defenders of the Constitution, and whose members have often bragged about keeping a miniature copy with them at all times, have, in the words of the Post’s Aaron Blake, “an increasingly novel relationship” with the document that James Madison and the Founders pulled together in Philadelphia in 1787.

Over my years as a journalist, I’ve come to know many public defenders. To a person, they have been deeply committed and intelligent, often very funny, and utterly dedicated to the law. Their backgrounds have encompassed every part of the American experience. And, to my knowledge, not one has ever said, “Hooray, I get to represent terrorists and murderers today.”

Instead, they’ve taken on their usually hopeless assignment, often for very low pay compared to their colleagues across the legal trade, and they’ve done the best they can with it. Sometimes they win. More often, they lose. But they keep showing up for work.

 

Because that’s what the Constitution demands of them. And that’s how we hope our best public servants will act.

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An award-winning political journalist, John L. Micek is Editor-in-Chief of The Pennsylvania Capital-Star in Harrisburg, Pa. Email him at jmicek@penncapital-star.com and follow him on Twitter @ByJohnLMicek. Copyright 2022 John L. Micek, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.


Copyright 2022 John Micek, All Rights Reserved. Credit: Cagle.com

 

 

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