The dispute between the "striking" Bar Advocates and the Governor is heating up. Like Reagan with PATCO, Romney is threatening to "fire" them all.* I'm pleased. Sure, they're not paid enough. But their work stoppage is threatening public safety because without enough lawyers, courts are letting criminals out of jail.
A few quick points:
1. Bar Advocates should be paid more than their (lowest in the nation) current rates.
2. Bar Advocacy is about more than just money, and it is unprincipled to turn it into a labor issue.
3. Because having no lawyer is a get-out-of-jail free card, for the first time in American history it is better to be a poor defendant than a rich one.
*Why all the quotation marks? Because they aren't striking, really. They're just refusing new cases. And the Governor can't fire them because they don't work for him. He is threatening to prohibit them from getting any new cases, ever.
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