Treasure Seekers and Problem Solvers: Law and Democracy

I'm the daughter of a professor and a lawyer. From my English teacher Mom, I've learned to be a treasure-seeker: find the good in everything (and make grammar tweaks when needed!). From my attorney father, I've learned to be a problem-solver: anticipate the pitfalls and make sure to avoid them.

This is a bit of an understatement. Treasure or problem--it's also a matter of optimism and dread, fierce joy or protective anger. The world needs both, and I was raised in the middle of these passionate polarities.

A teacher myself, I've become very familiar with Mom's art. We read Shakespeare together as a family, and she analyzed poems with me as she would do with her students. Because she knew I wouldn't talk in the back of the classroom like my big sister did, she let me come along a few times. (I was traumatized by Blade Runner and much preferred hanging out in the Hofstra Library.) In recent years, I've helped her run technology for Zoom teaching and love watching her interactions with young adults.

Oddly, I only was able to see Dad at the courthouse once and I barely remember it. I remember he was wearing a suit (very unusual) and that I compared his theatrics to my experience on stage. I remember he told me I was not allowed to clap, and that I had to behave.  However, he spoke a lot about his cases, so much so that I was afraid a doctor might operate on a wrong limb or a  street pole might fall on my leg. Toward the end of his career, he switched to civil rights law, supporting whistleblowers. I saw his sense of justice when it came to advocating teachers.

My sisters and I became teachers and lawyers. We each have our own balance of treasure finding and problem solving. But all of us have a love for kids and a strong moral compass. And all of us are watching what is happening in the world. All of us use our skills to help others as best we can.

While doing just that, I've had my eyes turned to what others in these professions have done during past fascist regimes. The movie industry definitely portrays teachers scooting at-risk students out the back door when Gestapo agents showed up at schools. My doctoral research delved into many teachers who journeyed with or for their students. As teachers, we are expected to protect those in our care.

Lawyers and law-keepers have a protective role, too, but the media is less generous in how they present justice systems in fascist regimes. No surprise here-- fascism aims to stifle ethical lawyers and judges while promoting those who do the deeds of the authoritarian state. The "good lawyers" we hear about during the Holocaust are those who came in from the international community AFTER the war, those who poured their souls out in service of the Nuremberg Trials.  They came in after the harm was done.

What, then, do we know about the lawyers who saw the writing on the wall and tried to stop Nazism before it unveiled some of the worst of humanity? Clearly it didn't end well for these advocates. Delving into their history is a bit like performing the Titanic: we know how it's going to end.  But, who were they and what did they do? What can we learn from them?

Would-be art historian Hans Litten was pushed into the field of law by his father. I think I would have liked him because of his mix of tradition (classical music, poetry, languages) and his rugged individualism. Once he became a lawyer, I would have been awed at his guts.

I'm thinking about Judge Xinis right now, and Judges Boasner and McConnell--- all who are keeping forceful with saying (each in their own way) "This is Not Right."  Hans Litten did that back in 1931 by directly cross examining Hitler for three hours. In that time, he brought to light many of Hitler's violent tactics and tried to show the public that this wasn't ordinary policy. 

Instead, once Hitler’s power metastasized, Litten ended up in Buchenwald and Dachau, dead before his 35th birthday.

He wasn’t the only litigator to stand up against the Nazi machine in its early days, but so many of these advocates for justice ended up needing to flee the country or condemned to death camps. Fascists strive to weaken the bastions of justice; lawyers and judges can only defend up to a certain point when the populace reaches mob mentality.

I don’t know how this will end here in the good ol’e USA, but I am optimistic that the courts have repeatedly found in favor of our constitution and human rights. Where the legislative branch has failed to stand up to Trumpism, the judicial branch has a stronger (but not perfect) record. The president aims to undermine these successes with delay tactics and arguments that local-level federal cases should not affect the whole nation. However, we are still a country with a legal system. The treasure-seeking teacher in me (thanks, Mom!) sees hope in this.

Keep your eyes peeled, though, for legal actions that gradually rip away at our freedoms. The problem-solving daughter-of-a-lawyer in me sees scary nuances and power grabs in unquestioned (but questionable) executive orders. The raging activist in me wonders how some of the Supreme Court justices’ decisions can possibly be above partisanship. When the ultimate courts are compromised, so is our democracy. 

We don’t want to do the way of Hans Litten. Make sure we protect our lawyers and judges … and teachers…and especially that we allow all these professions to protect the less empowered and neediest in our society.