Quote Originally Posted by jmm99 View Post
Those who are that, primarily are that by forgetting their primary duty is to support the Constitution; and the next, which is to preserve the integrity of the judicial system (the oath we all take as officers of the courts). Those who do that become mercenaries - whether they do that for love of money or love of cause.
These are the ones to whom I was referring. I did not intend suggest that all lawyers are unscrupulous, just just the really good criminal attorneys. Seriously though, it seems like it only takes a few of them to dig and find all the loopholes to twist the law back on itself and confuse the system, never mind the jury.

Quote Originally Posted by jmm99 View Post
As to "judicial legislation", get real. Both liberal and conservative jurists legislate - both with abandon - and have done so since the founding of our Republic. After 40 years in this "racket" (as some would call it), my conclusion is that judges should be screaming moderates. Not that I belong to that part of the political spectrum, but because screaming moderates will do less harm in the long run.
Just because it has been going on for a long time doesn't make it not a bad thing. Ideally judges shouldn't even be moderates, they should be apolitical but of course that runs more or less counter to human nature so moderates are fine as far as that goes. Now as far as conservatives legislating from the bench, I'll have to defer to your many decades of experience on that. I haven't really seen it but I am no more in favor of that than liberals doing the same. I dislike the concept of legislation from the bench no matter what the political stripe.

SFC W