Lawyer Reflects On Morality Of Defending Terrorists

In the wake of last week’s coordinated terrorist attacks in Paris, “claims about the universality of dignity are particularly unwelcome,” writes Joseph Margulies, a Cornell Law professor who defended Abu Zubaydah, whose interrogation prompted the CIA’s infamous torture memo. “That of course is when they matter most,” he says. In an essay, Margulies updates his attempt to answer a student who asked him how he could defend someone whom everyone hates. “It is not enough for an advocate to make sure the state follows the rules and gets the right guy – at least, it is not enough for me,” he writes. “Instead, the challenge is simply this: to prove that there are no demons. Each of us may claim the dignity shared by all, regardless of the rights granted by a fickle state, independent of any process meant to separate good from bad, notwithstanding anything we may have done.”