Medicine is practiced safer today because of lawyers; the risk of being sued makes doctors more careful. Now, in theory, we could take away the right to do so and save a few dollars. This is true. The tradeoff would be that those harmed by doctors’ negligence would never be able to seek justice. This would also mean that bad doctors would continue to butcher patients without having to answer for their butchery . Do you want to live in a world where you cannot sue a doctor for inadvertently causing the death of your loved one; with a complete absence of professionalism? That is world offered to you by critics of our judicial system.

The situation with the attacks on lawyers by Liz Cheney, who runs a blog called "Keep America Safe," is unconscionable. Even the most conservative of lawyers have railed against this slime. For example, Ted Olson was the architect of George Bush’s 2000 victory with the United States Supreme Court, His wife, Barbara Olson, was killed during the 9/11 Pentagon crash. He is disgusted by Ms. Cheney’s characterization of high-level attorneys working in the Justice Department as the "Al Qaeda Seven," implying that their efforts representing former clients detained at Guantanamo as "unpatriotic."

What has happened to our country? Every person, even despicable terrorists, have at least minimal legal rights. There was no outrage directed at attorneys representing Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, or, those representing Scott Roeder, the executioner of George Tiller as he prayed in church. Acts of domestic terrorism are just as vile as those of foreign terrorists. Politics seem to dictate which attorney is branded as a pseudo-terrorist and which is just doing his or her job.

As an attorney, I have some say in whom I choose to represent, but I do not like all of my clients. Nor, am I responsible for any their despicable acts committed in the past or future. My job is to represent them zealously within the bounds of the law and the ethics of my chosen profession. Successful attorneys, especially in large firms, will donate their time, even to represent unpopular people or causes, "pro bono." They do this because they owe it to our judicial system to make sure that even the unpopular have an attorney protecting their legal rights.

It appears that those who now wish to smear the attorneys, even those that practice law for love of our law and country, want even noble choices turned into crimes against the state. Similarly, attorneys who help restore justice to families, who’s loved one’s have been maimed or killed by negligent doctors, are slammed. If either of these opinions against traction, it makes you wonder what has come of this country.