As I periodically observe on cable news which I am increasingly trying to break away from due to reluctantly concluding that these channels edit their coverage of the news through an ideological lens, I have tried to read and watch history as it has been recorded and being made. I have focused almost inevitably given my background on the conduct of lawyers both in historically based movies and in the day-to-day coverage of politics and government. I am both amazed and appalled a lot of the time. Once in a while I am encouraged!
I am amazed that so many lawyers including some who are legislators and even judicial aspirants are prepared to apparently sacrifice their integrity, and in many cases, their reputation, not to mention violating their Oath in order to attain the approval of the President or other authority to gain appointment to the Bench or high office in the Executive Branch of the Federal government and upon confirmation, now with power, carry out policies directed by the Executive or even his staff that the lawyer knows are just plain WRONG. These unconstitutional, illegal policies and procedures include the “investigations” of individuals, businesses, media, lawyers, law firms, and universities simply because the President doesn’t like them or what they say about him, ordering law firms and lawyers to pay the government money and to not represent clients whom the government doesn’t approve of and represent clients the government opposes.
At this point I am of a mind to say to Bar Counsels and Attorney Grievance Committees all over the country as several judges have themselves said “Alert Status.”
With that in mind, I can’t resist recommending to our elected leaders in Congress, appointed and elected officials in the Federal Executive Branch including the President of the United States and particularly the Attorney General and his Staff, a timeless movie. That movie is Judgement at Nuremberg starring Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark and Maximilian Schell. It is the story of the historically based Trial of Three German Judges for their role in the administration of the “judicial system” in Nazi Germany. Each of the Defendant Judges offers a different legal and factual defense to the same charges, including “Crimes Against Humanity.” These distinctive defenses split the 3-Judge Tribunal chaired by the Presiding Judge portrayed by Spencer Tracy. The complexity of the cases and the actions and events which lead up to them show that judicial philosophy did matter then and also mattered when the actions of these German judges were later themselves adjudicated.
The point of the message that this movie delivers is not to compare/contrast what is going on now in our country, indeed the world, which is being bandied about very carelessly with the terms “Fascism, Communism, Socialism, Capitalism,” etc. Rather, the point made in this movie is to answer the question asked, after years of research, by one of my mentors, the now deceased, former Chief Judge of The District Court of Maryland, Robert F. Sweeney – “Where were the Judges and the Lawyers.” – when what is now acknowledged as an evil Nazi regime was allowed to murder 6 million people, attack without provocation sovereign nations and generally deprive their fellow human beings of basic human rights. Even more troubling, could anything like this happen again?
The answer to that question which the classic movie provides is that like every other human endeavor, the judges and lawyers of that time and now were not in any one place or of one mindset. That is these human beings, and these events were more complicated than either their admirers and/or detractors wanted to believe. More importantly, each of these very different judges believed that their defense based on their blind loyalty to a leader or duty to the Country or pure political survivorship, survival or ambition was “the right thing to do.” Notwithstanding these defenses, these individuals were held accountable for their actions.