Word: legalism
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Thus the charge of conspiracy, like a horrible shadowy octopus, swallowed up the men and issues whole and forced on them a half-hearted legal defense. The story of the trial becomes almost absurd as we see Sloane Coffin's lawyer arguing that if his client did in fact aid and abet the burning of draft cards, this did not hinder Selective Service but help it, since all draft card violators were to be immediately reclassified as I-A meat on the hoof...
...itself, but the sugary coating that we give to it with doggy cemeteries and $20.000 gilt-edge Eternal Rest Coffins. In the same way, the horror of the political trial in this country is not that it tries to exterminate opposition but that it coats it over with gooey legal semantics or refuses to deal with it at all. Clear light and creative action cannot be seen through the democratic quagmire. And thus the logic of preferring a George Wallace who says what he thinks and is openly repressive to Nixon or Humphrey becomes immensely more clear. So does...
...frequent target of anti-war and anti-draft protestors, Hershey was condemned as autocratic, too old for the job, and defiant of legal draft policy. Sen. Eugeue J. McCarthy (D-Minn.) promised during his 1968 presidential campaign to fire Hershey if elected. Nixon refaced to talk such a stand...
...Viet Nam war and work for modest fees-though some charge as much as $3,000 for a case that goes to court. All disclaim any intention of counseling their clients to evade the draft, a federal crime that carries a five-year sentence. As in tax cases, the legal word is "avoidance," euphemistic as it sounds...
...long as draft boards can act capriciously, draft lawyers perform a valid legal service. Unfortunately, an obvious problem is that men who can afford skilled draft lawyers have a clear advantage over the sons of poor families who cannot pay high legal fees. Though some lawyers are helping to train "draft counselors," who give free help, the poor still get less than professional advice-more sad proof that the present draft laws not only make draft lawyers necessary but also breed contempt for law in general...