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In the Biggest Cases, Big Law Tilts Decisively Left
RealClear Politics ^ | 23 Jan, 2024 | Ryan Bangert

Posted on 01/23/2024 6:38:08 AM PST by MtnClimber

In a rigorous and important study that should surprise no one, University of Notre Dame law professor Derek Muller has found that of over 3,200 amicus briefs submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court in cases filed and decided between 2018 and 2022 by lawyers at the nation’s largest law firms, 64% favor liberal causes.

The pronounced tilt by America’s elite lawyers toward the political left is a well-known phenomenon. As someone who practiced in “Big Law” for over a decade, I and many of my colleagues came to view that tilt as a given. Studies have since shown that the American legal profession overall tilts politically liberal.

What I found particularly notable about Muller’s study, however, was the revelation that elite firms have monolithically advanced leftist positions in five cases since 2018 that Muller describes as possessing “high salience.” These are cases in which exceptionally large numbers of amicus briefs were filed – at least 60 in each case – an indication of their real or perceived significance. These cases, in Muller’s words, “touch on some of the most divisive areas of political controversy” in America today.

These high-salience cases include Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade; Bostock v. Clayton County (consolidated with Harris Funeral Homes v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission), which found that employment actions taken solely because of sexual orientation or gender identity violate Title VII’s ban on “sex” discrimination; and Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, which involved a challenge to a city ordinance requiring a Catholic foster and adoption service to violate its beliefs by placing children with unmarried and same-sex couples. Also included are another abortion case, June Medical Services v. Russo, and a Second Amendment case, New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen.

(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...


TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: lawyers

1 posted on 01/23/2024 6:38:08 AM PST by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

What percentage of lawyers are power-hungry communists?


2 posted on 01/23/2024 6:38:33 AM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page. More photos added.)
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To: MtnClimber

Abortion, religious freedom, gender identity, and Second Amendment rights are the big issues recently


3 posted on 01/23/2024 6:40:54 AM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page. More photos added.)
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To: MtnClimber

Leftist causes tend to mean classes of victim s, so this is not altogether surprising.

The legal beast needs its victims, real and imagined.


4 posted on 01/23/2024 6:41:29 AM PST by Bshaw (A nefarious deceit is upon us all!)
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To: MtnClimber

They’ll get their just due, when those who respect the law are outnumbered by those who no longer respect it. That tipping point is just around the corner...if it is not already here now.


5 posted on 01/23/2024 6:41:43 AM PST by Da Coyote
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To: MtnClimber

I think about 80%, but I’m just estimating. A profession that doesn’t create anything and parses truth for a living is naturally going be a communist magnet. Of course there are always exceptions.


6 posted on 01/23/2024 6:45:01 AM PST by MountainWalker
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To: MtnClimber
What percentage of lawyers are power-hungry communists?

"Big Law" lawyers? In my own experience, relatively few. Those types are principally money-hungry and/or obsessed with their own status and reputation within their own professional circle.

It's really quite childlike and naive, when all is said and done. If anything, the "best and the brightest" in that class of Big Law lawyers have a pretty poor grasp of the real world.

7 posted on 01/23/2024 6:57:50 AM PST by DSH
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To: MtnClimber

8 posted on 01/23/2024 6:59:30 AM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire, or both.)
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To: MtnClimber

“The first thing we do is, let’s kill all the lawyers.”
— Shakespeare


9 posted on 01/23/2024 7:10:03 AM PST by vikingd00d (chown -R us ~you/base)
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To: MtnClimber

Why????
Because “The Bar” is a private organization, and is run by leftists.


10 posted on 01/23/2024 7:10:22 AM PST by joe fonebone (And the people said NO! The End)
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To: vikingd00d

“The first thing we do is, let’s kill all the lawyers.”

No, the goal should be to reduce government power.


11 posted on 01/23/2024 7:30:22 AM PST by Brian Griffin
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To: joe fonebone

Almost ALL independent lawyers and small firms have abandoned the American Bar Association because of the ABA’s politics and deep state ties.


12 posted on 01/23/2024 7:49:58 AM PST by oldplayer
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To: MtnClimber

“What percentage of lawyers are power-hungry communists?

This is talking about big-firm lawyers. In that group, not many.

This is more a class thing. Big firm lawyers are part of the elite, the Ruling Class. They absorb the attitudes of the elite at Harvard Law and then professionally.


13 posted on 01/23/2024 8:21:55 AM PST by ModelBreaker
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To: MtnClimber

This is a direct result of law school faculty recruited for their political and DEI views instead of their depth of legal knowledge. Likewise, admissions committees at every elite law school are dominated by leftists and give admissions preference to liberal and minority students. And once in law school, the grading is blatantly left leaning. To get an A in constitutional law requires parroting leftist talking points, and any discussion of original intent is penalized.

As a result, with very few exceptions the “elite” students who are recruited by top law firms are decidedly leftist. Yet corporate America keeps hiring them, paying their astronomical fees and feeding the beast.

The other explanation for this leftist lean is that the supposed “elite” law firms are all located in totally leftist urban areas, New York, DC, LA and San Francisco (and to some degree Chicago, Dallas and Houston). The rest are considered the backwoods hoi polloi of the legal profession.


14 posted on 01/23/2024 8:35:17 AM PST by con-surf-ative
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To: oldplayer

But....
You can’t practice law until you pass a bar exam.....
Why does a private organization get to license public attorneys?
Or public anything???


15 posted on 01/23/2024 9:02:28 AM PST by joe fonebone (And the people said NO! The End)
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