"Cheney Steps Up War on Lawyers"

Canada.com definitely gets my award for the best headline about Cheney’s hunting mishap yet: “Cheney Steps Up War on Lawyers.” Since nobody has posted on Cheney’s “smoking gun” yet(it's by Corpus Crispi Texas and not Iraq after all – who knew?), I’ll pick up the slack.

The irony, of course, is that this might be a win-win situation. It has the potential to make Cheney look better; after all, who doesn’t enjoy seeing a lawyer gunned down? Ithas the potential to make lawyers look better too. After being gunned down, the lawyer was able to grin and take it. What a sport! And it even can help the NRA. I can see their new headline now: “Guns don’t kill people. People with good aim kill people.”

Of course, jokes aside, we do have a problem in this country with litigation. In our federal courts alone, the numbers of cases are staggering. Observe:

U.S. District Courts: Civil Cases –
Filed in 2005: 278,712
Terminated in 2005: 260,980
Pending as of Jan. 2006: 281,172

U.S. District Courts: Criminal Cases –
Filed in 2005: 70,364
Terminated in 2005: 64,430
Pending as of Jan. 2006: 67,867

U.S. Courts of Appeals –
Filed in 2005: 65,418
Terminated in 2005: 57,486
Pending as of Jan. 2006: 54,908

U.S. Bankruptcy Courts –
Filed in 2005: 1,590,975
Terminated in 2005: 1,612,145
Pending as of Jan. 2006: 1,654,018

(Figures from http://www.uscourts.gov/caseload2005/contents.html )

And the number of cases handled by state courts dwarfs these figures. If this not a drain on our system, I don't know what is. So, getting back to serious policy, I think Cheney has the right idea. But next time, Mr. Vice President, shoot to kill.

(Note: This was written by a prospective law student.)