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Do lawyers undermine the checks and balances of the three branches of US government?

You have to be a lawyer to serve in the judiciary branch. Many members of the legislative branch are lawyers. They make complicated laws guaranteeing lots of work for lawyers. The executive branch is populated by lots of lawyers. Lawyers move freely from one branch to another. A lawyer in one branch of government has friends and colleagues in the other branches. So in effect there are diminished checks and balances between branches. Does this make sense?.

Public Comments

  1. No. Your post does not make sense.
  2. I believe the entire system is undermined. You mention how lawyers have friends and colleagues in other branches of government. However, I think it’s a problem even within the same branch. I used to work in the criminal justice system for many years. I have seen how some judges are more friendly with some lawyers than they are with others. Is that judge able to be objective and put aside his personal feelings? I really wonder sometimes. From some of the rulings I saw, I would bet that oftentimes, it’s not always too objective. There was on case where it was purely obvious, as the judge and one of the lawyers had a brief (about 20 second) dialogue about some social event they both attended the night before. . . and he ended up ruling in favor of the client that lawyer was representing. Judges should recuse themselves in that situation, but I'm sure bias goes on all the time. Furthermore, what you said about the diminished checks and balances among the different branches makes lots of sense. Each branch should operate independent of the other; but if Jane Doe Lawyer of one branch is good friends with John Doe Lawyer of another, I really do believe that it can compromise the integrity of the process, especially if Jane and John kind of like each other a whole lot. I don’t know if there is an answer to fix it because it’s the good old boy network that doesn’t change and only the few privileged lawyers are at the helm to make the decisions and policies. But in the end, it’s us, the American people who suffer the consequences.
  3. It's not the lawyers that undermine the checks and balances - it's politicians. The behavior you and some of the other answers are describing fits perfectly with what a politician does on a daily basis. That is to use his/her friendly connections to push their agenda through. You don't have to be a lawyer to be a politician, but you do have to be a politician to succeed in politics.
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