Sunday, January 12, 2025

There must be 50 ways: Participating in democracy #32: Be a lawyer

The lawyers who participate in democracy are legion, for better or worse. Historically, lawyers make up more of the membership of Congress--the House and Senate--than any other profession. In the 119th Congress, 179 of the members[1] are lawyers. 

Lawyers also argue many sorts of cases that impact our democracy, from immigration to lawsuits complaining of election fraud and much more. Nonviolent resisters who engage in the outside game when they do their nonviolent resistance usually engage in the inside game of defending themselves in criminal court, normally with a willing lawyer. This is how the Rosa Parks desegregation campaign succeeded, as well as the school desegregation campaign before that. 

Thus, lawyers can work toward changing public policy, corporate policy, or institutional policy either alongside nonviolent resisters who go to trial--and attempt to flip the script in the courtroom by putting the government, the corporations, or the institution on trial--or as litigants in civil cases (lawsuits). 

While many scorn the law as a practice for organizations committing fraud, oppression, or other nefarious activities, it is important to hold up the lawyers dedicated to justice, to democracy, to ending climate chaos caused by fossil fuels, and much more. Lawyers defending democracy are the last ones, quite often, to actually work inside the system when the system is groaning from other lawyers paid to protect authoritarians, cheats, fraudsters, and polluters. This makes the law a crucial element to defending and enhancing democracy.



[1] https://www.americanbar.org/advocacy/governmental_legislative_work/grassroots-action-center/In_The_Weeds/

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