Believe in the Good
Recently, I went to a conference where an esteemed federal circuit judge spoke. He told a story of how he got to defend a criminal at the Supreme Court of the United States who was at risk of being deported if convicted. The man had been charged with a felony instead of a misdemeanor, which were grounds for deportation. The man was a recent immigrant to the United States - if deported, this man would be separated from his children and wife, as well as forced to leave the life he had built in America.
This judge stated that after oral arguments before the Supreme Court, he walked with this man onto the front steps of the Supreme Court. He gave him his analysis – he thought that oral arguments went well and that the justices were receptive to his arguments. However, the Supreme Court is notoriously unpredictable – and that they wouldn’t know the result of the case until after the justices had deliberated.
His client said simply, “We are going to win.”
The judge hesitated and told him again, “We can’t predict the outcome. I think you have a good case and that the case law is on your side. However, the verdict is not a for sure thing.”
The man said again, “No. We are going to win.”
The judge – being a good attorney, tried one last time to protect the expectations of his idealistic client. “I hope we win. But we can’t know for sure. I don’t want you to get your hopes up for something this unpredictable. We are going to have to wait and see.”
The client shook his head. “No. This is America. A place where you can litigate your case all the way up to the highest court of the land and where you will be heard. We are all equal under the law. I know I am innocent. We are going to win.”
The judge finally gave up trying to tell his client differently. But some weeks later: he received the results. His client had won by a unanimous decision by the Supreme Court.
The judge’s point that day was that we are all equal under the law – and that regardless of the cynicism and lack of justice that often pervades the media and our country, we must believe in the good and the fact that justice truly is available to all. When I heard this story, I felt suspicious and jaded.
This summer, I worked at an appellate court where we reviewed decisions of criminal convictions, much like the Supreme Court in this case. The defendant for my first case had been convicted of cocaine possession. The police officer, in my opinion, had illegally searched the defendant’s vehicle. However, it was the police officer’s word against the criminal, and the criminal did end up having cocaine in his car’s console. Despite this, I tried my best to get the decision reversed. Even though this defendant had a rap sheet that was pages and pages long, and chances were that he would end up back in court for another offense, I felt compassion for him. He had been abused as a child, raised by his grandmother, and had severe psychological problems. He had grown up on the streets and the record of the lower court showed that he didn’t trust his court-appointed lawyer and that he was deeply cynical of the judicial process. I wanted to give him one more chance. I believed in the good I saw inside of him. I wrote a memo advising my judge that I thought a reversal was appropriate. My judge denied my request. His conviction stood, and he is now facing a number of years in prison since this was not his first offense.
After this experience, I began to see the brokenness around me. Often, criminals have the deck stacked against them, as the standard for reversal is so high that they often cannot overcome it. The district attorney’s office often goes after these types of criminals because they want a record that shows they are tough on crime. Court-appointed lawyers are often the most underpaid and overworked members of the bar, who work for close to nothing for these criminals convicted by the state. On more than one occasion, I saw lawyers who “mailed it in” for their low-income clients because they either didn’t care, or weren’t getting paid enough to make them care. I walked away from my summer at the court with a huge hit to my idealism and a feeling that the term “justice for all” was not true – at least for the poorest and most vulnerable of society.
I talked to many of my friends in law school and lawyers about my experience. I asked, “Why am I so cynical? Why don’t I believe in the inherent good of our system anymore? I feel so jaded.” They all told me the same thing: “We don’t have an answer for you. You just have to believe in the good.”
I struggled with this for a long time. In this day and age, it is so hard to believe in the good. When there is so much brokenness around, how are we supposed to find the good in our world where gunmen shoot up elementary schools, typhoons ruin countries, and court systems convict and abandon the most vulnerable members of our society? I sunk into my cynicism further and further, becoming more and more unhappy in law school and my choice in joining the legal profession. The pain from having my idealism hit so hard left me with wounds that smarted and burned.
One of my friends finally messaged me and said, “The best part of believing in equal justice under the law is that we get to play a role in making that ideal statement as true as possible. You are not going to do any good writing off the injustice and unfairness you see – when you believe in the good then you have something to work towards.”
This resonated with me. I will not change anything by sitting still and making editorial comments on the current state of society. We must believe in the good – otherwise we will have nothing to believe in and nothing to push us forward towards the goal of making things better. If we feel defeated, cynical, jaded, broken – then we will not have the energy to work towards a better system or ways in which to fix the problems that surround us.
I could not have come to this realization without thinking about Christ. Christ has believed in the good within us, time and time again. How many times have we sinned and asked for forgiveness, only to sin again? How many times have we made the same mistakes or chosen to be unkind, jealous, mean-spirited, or hateful? I know that my answers to those questions would be too many times. If God had the spiritual make up of humans, He would have abandoned us long ago. But he believes in our inherent good – that is why he chose to die for us and save us. If He believed that we were not worth saving, or that there was nothing left in us for Him to save – He would not have sacrificed his only Son to make us clean.
Micah 7:18-19 says: “Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.” Ephesians 1:7 states: “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace.” Hebrews 10:17 says: "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more."
When we feel like we can’t believe in the inherent good in people or society anymore, we must remember God’s grace and forgiveness. He sees the good inside of us and believes that we are holy, sinless, blameless, and heirs and heiresses to His throne even when we act in decrepit and awful ways. If He sees the inherent good within us, how can we not see those traits within each other? How can we want to throw in the towel and retreat into our cynicism to protect ourselves against hurt or the realities of this world when Christ forgave the very people who beat him, shoved a crown of thorns over his head, and crucified him as a common criminal? God has shown us the way to overcome cynicism and to see the good – His very character shows us how to pick up the pieces and work towards a solution.
Although idealism is dangerous in this world, we must believe in the good. If we don’t we will become paralyzed, broken, and inactive because we are scared of being hurt and beaten by the steady march of cynicism. My prayer for others and myself is that we will look to Christ when we feel defeated, broken, or unable to see the good. We can ask Christ to transmit His forgiveness, mercy, and belief in the good to us. He has promised that He will give His wisdom generously to us without finding fault. (James 1:5) If we let Him, He can show us through His forgiveness and words how powerful and true the inherent good of our nature really is.
Ashley Kim is a 2L at The University of Texas School of Law.