Naked Fitzies and Iron Cages:
Individual Values, Professional Virtues,
and the Struggle for Public Space
Sources
Cited
See generally
Martha Minow, On Being a Religious
Professional: The Religious Turn in Professional
Ethics, 150 U. PA. L. REV. 661 (2001)
(discussing the role of religion and ethics
in professional life).
The word
"accommodation" is used in this Essay
in its everyday sense, not as it has come
to be understood as a word of art in First
Amendment scholarship. See generally
Ira C. Lupu, Reconstructing the Establishment
Clause: The Case Against Discretionary
Accommodation of Religion, 140 U.
PA. L. REV. 555, 559-66 (1991) (defining
"accommodation" in the context of the
First Amendment); Michael W. McConnell,
Accommodation of Religion: An Update
and a Response to the Critics, 60
GEO. WASH. L. REV. 685, 686-88 (1992)
(same).
Gary Krist,If It's Not One Thing, It's Another,
N.Y. TIMES, Aug. 24, 2003, § 7, at
7 (book review).
Tocqueville
approved of the influence of the Christian
religion on the latter ground, writing
that "while the law permits the Americans
to do what they please, religion prevents
them from conceiving, and forbids them
to commit, what is rash or unjust." 1
ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE, DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA
316 (Phillips Bradley ed., Vintage Books
1945) (1835).
For example,
the practice of public, ceremonial prayer
is a cause championed by many Christians,
but even some Christians object to the
practice on the ground that "the only
prescription for prayer offered by Jesus
himself is 'Don't do it in public'; rather,
'do it in private.'" J. Andrew Daugherty,
The
Prayerful Spirit, SIGHTINGS (May
20, 2004).
MARY DOUGLAS,
HOW INSTITUTIONS THINK 35 (1986) ("Religions
do not always make believers more loyal
to their rulers or more industrious in
their gardens and boats, any more than
magic always brings fishes to the nets.
Sometimes it does, sometimes not.").
See, e.g.,
DONALD A. SCHÖN, THE REFLECTIVE PRACTITIONER:
HOW PROFESSIONALS THINK IN ACTION 4-5
(1983) (chronicling the decline of confidence
in the professions).
See generally
Barry Sullivan, Professions of Law,
9 GEO. J. LEGAL ETHICS 1235 (1996) (commenting
on the views of various practitioners
and scholars on the current state of the
legal profession); Barry Sullivan, Book
Review, 5 LEGAL ETHICS 179 (2002) (reviewing
DEBORAH L. RHODE, IN THE INTERESTS OF
JUSTICE: REFORMING THE LEGAL PROFESSION
(2000)).
See,
e.g., ELIOT FREIDSON, PROFESSIONALISM:
THE THIRD LOGIC 123 (2001). According
to Freidson:
The formal
professional school [ideally] supports
a faculty whose task is to codify, refine,
and extend the profession's body of
knowledge and skill, and also elaborate
and clarify the values served by their
discipline. The professional school
is where ethics is elaborated as well
as taught and where that can be done
somewhat independently of the market
and the polity.
Id. See generally
Harry T. Edwards, The Growing Disjunction
Between Legal Education and the Legal
Profession, 91 MICH. L. REV. 34 (1992)
(arguing that the legal profession would
benefit by narrowing the gulf between
the academic and practicing parts of the
profession).
See,
e.g., STUART HAMPSHIRE, JUSTICE IS
CONFLICT 45 (2000):
I think the
true communities in modern life are
to be found in professions and shared
pursuits, in the communities of people
who work together. Most lawyers, most
actors, most soldiers and sailors, most
athletes, most doctors, and most diplomats
feel a certain solidarity in the face
of outsiders, and, in spite of other
differences, they share fragments of
a common ethic in their working life,
and a kind of moral complicity.
INVESTIGATIVE
STAFF OF THE BOSTON GLOBE,supra
note 19, at 152. The two priests were
both deeply involved in the Archdiocese's
response to the problem. William F. Murphy
was Vicar for Administration, and John
B. McCormack, who later became Bishop
of Manchester, New Hampshire, was responsible
for clergy personnel matters. Id.
at 28, 46, 171.
Of course,
some Catholic experts might have been
all too willing simply to do the Church's
bidding. On the other hand, a number of
other Catholic experts had been vocal
in their calls for further investigation
and action, and they were certainly available
to discuss all aspects of the problem,
including the canon law issues. Indeed,
a number of prominent Catholic scholars
had been attempting to persuade the National
Conference of Catholic Bishops to support
a major study since at least 1985, when
the Conference rejected the efforts of
Cardinal Bernardin and others to bring
forward a confidential report on clergy
sexual abuse for discussion. See id.
at 36-40; see also Eugene Kennedy,
The Secret Cause of the Sex Abuse Scandal,
NAT'L CATHOLIC REP., June 11, 2002, availablehere
(arguing that the cause of the sex abuse
scandal was the passivity of Catholic
bishops).
See
JAMES Q. WILSON, BUREAUCRACY: WHAT GOVERNMENT
AGENCIES DO AND WHY THEY DO IT 59-65 (1989)
(noting the influence of professional
training and norms in accomplishing the
work of government).
DOUGLAS,supra note 6, at 111 ("A comforting
but false idea about institutional thinking
is that institutions just
do the routine, low-level, day-to-day
thinking The contrary is more likely
to prevail. The individual tends to leave
the important decisions to his institutions
while busying himself with tactics and
details.").
Id.
at 99 ("Since all social relations can
be analyzed as market transactions, the
pervasiveness of the market successfully
feeds us the conviction that we have escaped
from the old non-market institutional
controls into a dangerous, new liberty.").
See, e.g.,
Implementation of Standards of Professional
Conduct for Attorneys, 68 Fed. Reg. 6296,
6296 (Feb. 6, 2003) (announcing the "rules
prescribing minimum standards of professional
conduct for attorneys appearing and practicing
before [the SEC]").
See, e.g.,
A Growing Millionaires' Club, AM.
LAW., July 2003, at 147, 147 (listing
the top ranking law firms according to
profits per partner in 2002).
According
to Washington'sLegal Times,
"the billable requirement for associates
[in Washington, D.C.] has risen from an
average of 1,500 hours in 1978 to 1,950
hours or more today." Marie Beaudette
& Lily Henning, D.C. Firms, All Grown
up Now: How a Quiet Legal Community in
1978 Became a Powerhouse Today, LEGAL
TIMES, Sept. 15, 2003, at 40, 42. Crain's
Chicago Business recently reported
that "[t]he standard for an associate
billing time to clients-about 1,800 hours
annually-shot up to 2,200 to 2,400" in
2000. Brian McCormick, Trial by Hire:
Special Report: Law Firms, CRAIN'S
CHI. BUS., Oct. 20, 2003, at SR1, SR2.
Some firms also have budgets for nonchargeable
hours, which require associates to work
several hundred more hours.
Of course,
the market places other pressures on the
physician-patient relationship, most notably
where physicians must attend to the demands
of third-party payors. But other, more
subtle pressures also exist. For example,
a recent article in the New York Times
noted that physicians typically are visited
by drug company representatives about
four times a month, but they believe that
these contacts have no effect on their
prescribing habits. See Dan Shapiro, Drug
Companies Get Too Close for Med School's
Comfort, N.Y. TIMES, Jan. 20, 2004,
at D5. According to the New York Times
article, however, studies suggest that
physicians "change their prescribing habits
and are far more likely to prescribe the
drugs described, even when they are more
expensive or have no benefit over alternatives."
Id.
See
AMA, Principles of Medical Ethics,
June 2001, here
(last visited Mar. 10, 2004).
See,
e.g., AMA Council on Ethical and Judicial
Affairs, Code of Medical Ethics Op. 5.05
(2002):
The obligation
to safeguard patient confidences is
subject to certain exceptions which
are ethically and legally justified
because of overriding social considerations.
Where a patient threatens to inflict
serious bodily harm to another person
or to him or herself and there is a
reasonable probability that the patient
may carry out the threat, the physician
should take reasonable precautions for
the protection of the intended victim,
including notification of law enforcement
authorities. Also, communicable diseases
and gun shot and knife wounds should
be reported as required by applicable
statutes or ordinances.
See, e.g.,
Matt O'Connor, Transplant Scandal Hits
3 Hospitals: Institutions Deny Waiting
List for Livers Abused for Profit,
CHI. TRIB., July 29, 2003, at 1, available
at 2003 WL 60112712 (reporting allegations
that "[t]hree of Chicago's most prestigious
medical centers falsely made it appear
that patients were near death in the late
1990s in order to move them to the top
of the waiting list for liver transplants,
federal and state authorities alleged
Monday").
See
MODEL RULES OF PROF'L CONDUCT pmbl. (1999)
("A lawyer is a representative of clients,
an officer of the legal system and a public
citizen having special responsibility
for the quality of justice.").
Id.
DR 1.2(d): A lawyer shall not counsel
a client to engage, or assist a client,
in conduct that the lawyer knows is criminal
or fraudulent, but a lawyer may discuss
the legal consequences of any proposed
course of conduct with a client and may
counsel or assist a client to make a good
faith effort to determine the validity,
scope, meaning or application of the law.
See, e.g.,
RESTATEMENT (THIRD) OF THE LAW GOVERNING
LAWYERS § 120(1)(a) (2000) (stating
that a lawyer may not "knowingly counsel
or assist a witness to testify falsely
or otherwise to offer false evidence").
In a criminal case, however, the decision
to testify remains with the client. Id.
§ 22.
See
FED. R. CIV. P. 11(b) (stating that submission
of a pleading constitutes certification
"that to the best of the person's knowledge,
information, and belief, formed after
an inquiry reasonable under the circumstances,
. . . the allegations and other factual
contentions have evidentiary support or,
if specifically so identified, are likely
to have evidentiary support after a reasonable
opportunity for further investigation
or discovery").
EMILE DURKHEIM,
PROFESSIONAL ETHICS AND CIVIC MORALS 5
(Cornelia Brookfield trans., 1958).
See, e.g.,
THE FEDERALIST NO. 51, at 352 (James Madison)
(Jacob E. Cooke ed., 1961) ("Justice is
the end of government. It is the end of
civil society. It ever has been, and ever
will be pursued, until it be obtained,
or until liberty be lost in the pursuit.").
See,
e.g., CHARLES TAYLOR, VARIETIES OF
RELIGION TODAY: WILLIAM JAMES REVISITED
111-12 (2002):
Individuals
make what they can of their 'religious
experience,' without too much concern
for how it all fits together at the
level of society or how it affects the
fate of different churches
The new framework
has a strongly individualist component,
but this will not necessarily mean
that the content will be individuating.
Many people will find themselves joining
extremely powerful religious communities,
because that's where many people's
sense of the spiritual will lead them.
See
JOHN STUART MILL, ON LIBERTY 68-69 (Gertrude
Himmelfarb ed., Penguin Books 1974) (1859):
[T]he only
purpose for which power can be rightfully
exercised over any member of a civilized
community, against his will, is to prevent
harm to others The only part
of the conduct of anyone for which he
is amenable to society is that which
concerns others. In the part which merely
concerns himself, his independence is,
of right, absolute. Over himself, over
his own body and mind, the individual
is sovereign.
Of course, the
answer was not obvious, even in these
circumstances, to the three judges who
dissented from the denial of rehearing
en banc. See id. at 927 (Ripple,
J., dissenting).
See, e.g.,
Sherbert v. Verner, 374 U.S. 398 (1963)
(involving employee discharged for refusal
to work on Sunday for religious reasons);
Braunfeld v. Brown, 366 U.S. 599 (1961)
(involving merchants who do not work on
Saturday for religious reasons challenge
a statute that forbids retail sales on
Sunday); W. Va. State Bd. of Educ. v.
Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943) (involving
a challenge to an expulsion for refusal
to salute and pledge allegiance to American
flag); Minersville Sch. Dist. v. Gobitis,
310 U.S. 586 (1940) (same).
See, e.g.,
Peterson v. Hewlett Packard Co., 358 F.3d
599, 601-02 (9th Cir. 2004) (involving
an unsuccessful Title VII action brought
by "devout Christian" worker whose employment
was terminated in response to posting
of scriptural passages in opposition to
employer's diversity campaign where postings
were "intended to be hurtful" to gay and
lesbian coworkers, whose repentance and
salvation he intended to facilitate);
see also Molly Knight, Religious Experience
Didn't Inspire Passengers: American Airlines
Investigating Pilot's Call for Christians
to Raise Their Hands, SEATTLE TIMES, Feb.
15, 2004, at A2 (reporting on an American
Airlines pilot who encouraged Christian
passengers to share their faith with nonbelievers
during the flight); Christian Question
Alarms Flight, BBC NEWS, Feb. 9, 2004,
available here.
123 S.
Ct. 2472, 2496 (2003) (Scalia, J.,
dissenting).
Id.
(Scalia, J., dissenting). It is interesting
that Justice Scalia used similar rhetoric
to discuss the Catholic bishops' opposition
to the death penalty in a case decided
in the previous term. See Atkins
v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304, 347 n.6 (2002)
(Scalia, J., dissenting).
Justice
Scalia's comments bear little relevance
to the question presented in Lawrence.
What the state's position should be with
respect to homosexual conduct is obviously
a difficult question for many people,
some of whom undoubtedly would assert
religious grounds in support of their
positions. But the Court has now spoken
as to what the state is constitutionally
permitted to do in this area, just as
it has spoken, in years past, on such
matters as racial desegregation, interracial
marriage, and the rights of parents to
have their children educated in parochial
schools-all of which were opposed by people
who held equally strong views, some also
based on assertedly religious values.
See, e.g., Loving v. Virginia,
388 U.S. 1 (1967) (interracial marriage);
Brown v. Bd. of Educ., 347 U.S. 483 (1954)
(racial desegregation); Pierce v. Soc'y
of the Sisters, 268 U.S. 510 (1925) (parochial
school education).
The foregoing
examples are drawn from the legal profession,
but the legal profession obviously is
not unique in this respect. Conflicts
between personal beliefs (often informed
by religious values and teachings) and
professional values regularly occur in
other professional settings. For example,
substantial attention has focused recently
on pharmacists who refuse to fill prescriptions
because of religious objections. See,
e.g., Marilyn Gardner, Pharmacists'
Moral Beliefs vs. Women's Legal Rights,
CHRISTIAN SCI. MONITOR, Apr. 26, 2004,
at 11.
William
Cronon,"Only Connect " The
Goals of a Liberal Education, 67 AM.
SCHOLAR 73, 79 (1998).