Lawyers out there losing their goddamn minds.

Apologies in advance for the fact that today’s content is going to be something of a mishmash or stream-of-consciousness type of presentation, but it’s where the brain is at based on the events of the last 48-72 hours. (Loyal readers will likely wonder why I think a mishmash is any different than the normal presentation.)

I’m pretty sure none of us expected in 2020 to be living both 1918 and 1968 simultaneously. I know I didn’t. I have a wide variety of political thoughts about our situation, but if you are interested in those go find me on Twitter.

The fragile and incendiary nature of our circumstances in the United States though have recently resulted in a variety of instances of lawyers making incredibly poor decisions. I struggled a bit with whether any of the situations merited posting about or if bringing extra attention (Ha! As if I have that kind of power or reach…) was unhelpful.

Then, yesterday, through a “professional” listserv I participate in I witnessed a lawyer call for the assassination of public officials and incarcerating people without trials and for as long as it would take for them to contract COVID-19. I also watched a different lawyer throw wholehearted support to the first lawyer’s writings and sentiments. That second lawyer though might just be salty about having previously been criticized among the same group for having disparaged an entire generation of lawyers. Those two instances did drive home the point to me that a much larger percentage of lawyers then you might think are doing what the title of this post suggests.

More instances of lawyers reacting very poorly to the current environment have been bombarding us in the legal news of late.

You’ve certainly read about the two lawyers, one of whom work(ed) for a very large law firm, who have been arrested for throwing an incendiary device into an unoccupied police car. Perhaps you’ve also read about the Florida prosecutor who just got fired over a racist Facebook post that involved comparing protestors to animals. You might also have read about the lawyer in Vermont who was immediately and temporarily suspended over pulling a gun on a store clerk in a dispute over social distancing.

But I really, truly hope you’ve been doing your reading on what – in terms of historical ramifications – was the worst of the recent lawyer conduct. If the latest reports are correct, it was the Attorney General of the United States (someone who I’ve written about repeatedly in the past with respect to defiance of his ethical obligations) who approved/authorized the deployment of tear gas and rubber bullets on peaceful protestors in D.C. in order to provide a clear pathway for the current occupant of the White House to make this video. If you’d like a different video to show you just a snippet of what it took to make that video, try here. It continues to be difficult to wrap my head around the fact that we live in a situation in which the fact that this man continues to hold the office of Attorney General is, itself, prejudicial to the administration of justice in a way that runs afoul of RPC 8.4(d).

This same lawyer also appears to be redirecting other federal law enforcement resources, including the DEA, into expanded roles that are impossible to view as anything other than highly threatening to the exercise of civil liberties and First Amendment rights of assembly and petitioning the government for redress of grievances.

In fairness, to Mr. Barr, it is not fair to say he’s lost his goddamned mind because of the ongoing circumstances. This seems to be who he has always been.