Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Ethics Blogs -> Legal Ethics Forum

OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Bankruptcy (866) 635-1838
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402

Ethics

: Legal Ethics Forum

At The Federalist Society

ADVERTISEMENTS

At the risk of channeling too much Stanley Fish (though there are worse things to do in a blog), I'm stealing the title of one of his essays to link to th is debate on the OLC memos, hosted by the Federalist Society. (Thanks to my friend Dale Carpenter for the pointer.) It is spirited and well worth reading.

Stanley's point, by the way, was that at a meeting of the Federalist Society he noted two narratives running side by side: Society members as heroic defenders of true moral principles all right-thinking people adhere to, and Society members as besieged victims of rampant amoralism and the relativist ethic of victimization. The rhetorical trick was to maintain the status as victim as a predicate for the status of hero--"to keep the lamenting and rejoicing from bumping into each other so that the vehemence of the one will not be undercut by the elation of the other." Touche. You can see some of this in the debate above.

Which is to say nothing against the Federalist Society which, in part due to the brilliant work of my friend and former co-clerk Leonard Leo, has succeeded well enough to inspire the greatest of all complements: imitation.

(Though I am not now, nor have I ever been, a member......)

Full post as published by Legal Ethics Forum on May 01, 2009 (boomark / email).