Given everything that happened last week, expect to hear from a lot of attorneys, law firms, and advocacy groups promising to “fight for your rights”. As something of a Libertarian at heart, I would find this very encouraging–more people joining the battle against constant growth of government control. But unfortunately, none of those pushing to “guarantee your rights” actually want to “guarantee” ALL of your rights. They just want to “protect” the rights they think you should have.
Case in point: Attorneys Paul Clement and Erin Casey presented the case to the Supreme Court on behalf of the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association arguing that it should be the legal burden of the state under the 2nd Amendment to prove that you do not need to carry a concealed weapon for personal protection, and not the legal burden of the applicant to prove they do need to carry for personal protection. So what was Clement and Casey’s reward for winning this landmark case? Their law firm, Kirkland & Ellis, eliminated their jobs. Kirkland & Ellis announced that it would no longer take 2nd Amendment cases–which Clement and Casey had a national reputation for handling (and winning). To add further insult, in a public statement Kirkland & Ellis noted that it “looked forward to still working with Clement and Casey in future matters NOT involving the 2nd Amendment”.
Another case to consider: The American Civil Liberties Union for decades was a staunch defender of 1st Amendment rights to free speech, protest, and petition of the government. In 1977, it was involved in a high-profile case where it defended a Nazi group’s right to hold a march and rally in the streets and in a public park in Skokie, Illinois–a city with a very high Jewish population. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court–with the Nazi’s winning, (They were vastly outnumbered by counter-protestors on the day of the march). The ACLU also represented the white supremacist group that held a similar march and rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017–where a woman involved in a counter-protest was killed by a man from the supremacy group that intentionally ran her over with his car. Since that incident, the new generation of leaders at the ACLU have publicly stated they will no longer take up cases where people want to protest while armed–and that “serious consideration” will have to take place before choosing to defend what it considers “hate speech” in the future.
Meanwhile, the group’s Deputy Director for Trans-Gender Justice, Chase Santiago, is openly calling for a ban on the publication of the book Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters by Abigail Schrier. The book questions the sudden rise in transgender identification among teenage girls and young adult women, and considers whether it may be a “social contagion” (kids succumbing to peer pressure and fads) or a legitimate change in gender makeup among humans unique to this generation. In a tweet Santiago says “Stopping the circulation of this book and these ideas is 100% a hill I will die on.” As comedian Bill Maher said in a recent rant on HBO, “How civil libertarian of you”.
While there will likely continue to be law firms and lawyers willing to take up cases dealing with, shall we say, “unpopular rights”–the number of firms and organizations with the resources necessary to take a case like that all the way through layers of circuit and appellate courts to the Supreme Court are few and are dwindling. And keep in mind, it is only in criminal cases where the Government is required to provide you with an attorney if you cannot afford one–and not in a civil case where you are taking on the Government’s attempts to abuse its power. (And criminals are not required to pay for the District Attorney and everything the state spent on prosecuting the case if the defendant loses.)
So when you hear high-profile attorneys advertising for business, or advocacy groups asking for donations, on the premise of “working to protect your rights!”–remember it’s okay to ask “All of them?”
