Thursday, April 05, 2007

Most shocking line in a brief, ever

It astonishes me that people with seven years of post-secondary education can end up being, well, stupid. Stupid is the wrong word, because there are plenty of really bad lawyers out there. However, it takes an entierly new depth of moron-ness to write the following, which I saw in a brief today:

"Homosexuals are like suidice bombers, destroying themselves while they murder others."
And no, this isn't a case about the intentional transmission of HIV, or about gay demonstraters, or gay suicide bombers in Kraplakistan. It's a sad case involving persecution and outrageous cruelty. And yet, the usual battalion of organizations are lined up against us, all named "American society for constitutional liberty" or "American Foundation for the protection of civil rights" or "Foundation for liberty and justice." Right.
What group of people do you think would sit at a table and say "Oh yes, let's put that line in their. After all, it will be very persuasive to the judges; after all with the war on terror, it will surely resonate."

2 comments:

Devin Maxwell said...

Dean:

I don't know where you live, but I would report the lawyer that wrote that to your local bar society. It is grounds for punishment of some sort in my view...

Dean P said...

Actually, I don't think it is actually grounds for anything. It's not a misrepresentation of the law, and though it is a misrepresentation of fact in a way, it also isn't. It's outrageous, and in a sort of vague conceptual way it violates one's general obligation to do good (hahaha) and to do justice, but . . . At any rate, a while later, an amended brief was filed, with that specific language--if not the general point--removed.