One of literature’s most misunderstood quotes is from Shakespeare’s Henry VI:

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

The world’s oldest lawyer joke, it turns out, is on those who dislike lawyers. “Dick the Butcher” utters these words to fellow anarchist Jack Cade, stating the first step to overthrowing the government.  Shakespeare refers to Cade as “the head of an army of rabble and a demagogue pandering to the ignorant.” Thus, Shakespeare makes the point that lawyers are defenders of liberty.

Liz Cheney, daughter of the former vice president, calls out seven Justice Department lawyers for representing alleged terrorists prior to going to work for the Attorney General.  Her organization, “Keep America Safe,” produced a video entitled, “Who Are the Al Qaeda Seven?” The video demands the Obama administration disclose their names.

The upshot of the Cheney argument is that lawyers are unpatriotic for providing a defense to “enemy combatants.” These attorneys volunteered their time to defend the rule of law, taking the position that even the worst offenders have rights to counsel, court scrutiny of their detention without formal charges, compliance with the Geneva Convention, and other rights found in US and international law.  Never mind these lawyers won several key cases before an extremely conservative Supreme Court of the United States; Cheney wants you to believe they are conspiring with our enemies.  Demanding their “outing” by the Obama administration is not an attempt to discover the names of these lawyers. You can find their identities on a number of websites. What Cheney wants is to brand them as traitors.

This effort to tattoo lawyers with the sins of their clients is an attack on the rule of law. If we are a society ruled by law, everyone – even the most despicable character – is entitled to a lawyer. To say otherwise is to create a special class of persons whose fate is not subject to the rule of law. The alternative to the rule of law is the rule of the mob.

What comes next?  Cheney’s next video may proclaim: “Light your torches!  It’s time to lynch a terrorist…and his lawyer!”