To the Editor:
I am an 81 year old retired attorney from another large law firm. I know there are differing interpretations of the famous line in Shakespeare’s Henry VI among the villainous plotters to overthrow the government that, “the first thing we must do is kill all the lawyers.” My own interpretation is that the plotters recognized that “the lawyers” were a bulwark against an assault on the rule of law, when the plotters wanted a rule of one.
I am also old enough to remember the line in the 1950s, when there was a widespread fear of communist ascendancy, that the “dictatorship of the proletariat” meant “one man, one vote, one time.” That was eerily echoed in the last campaign when Trump told his audience that if enough of the right people voted for him it would be the last time they ever had to vote. I regard Trump’s assault on the judiciary and the attorneys who advocate before it as part and parcel of his effort, under the guise of the “unitary executive” theory, to subjugate every other branch of government to his will, and then to use the power of the federal government to enrich himself and reward his collaborators.
I applaud your firm for your courage to stand up and resist, and your dedication to the principles on which our nation was founded.
Alfred Wilcox
Old Saybrook, CT