'Over-lawed' nation

'Over-lawed' nation
Waterbury Republican-American ^ | July 3, 2008 | Editorial

For our money, attorney Norman Pattis still holds the record for the best summation of the legal profession: "Each year, the bar belches forth a new class of lawyers; we add them faster than they die off. Lawyers need cases or controversies to survive. As the number of lawyers grows, plaintiffs' lawyers reach ever deeper into the cesspool of human need to find clients. Is it any wonder that the courts are filled to overflowing with litigation that would better be treated with Prozac, Thorazine or some other radical therapy?"

But Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia from time to time gives Mr. Pattis a run for his money. Most recently, he gave an interview to a British newspaper about the high court's role in preventing the Florida Supreme Court from stealing the 2000 presidential election for Al Gore [Dash] "I have no regrets about taking the case and I think our decision in the case was absolutely right. But if you ask me 'Am I sorry it all happened?' Of course I am sorry it happened. There was no way that we were going to come out of it smelling like a rose. I mean, one side or the other was going to feel that was a politicized decision but that goes with the territory" [Dash] in which he reflected upon his profession.

His conclusion? The United States is "over-lawed," that is, it has too many laws and too many lawyers. "Now I love the law, there is nothing I would rather do, but it doesn't produce anything." Except, by virtue of its dominance of the legislative and judicial branches, more work for lawyers reaching ever deeper into the cesspool.