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72 SMU L. Rev. F. 1 (2019)

handle is hein.journals/smulrf72 and id is 1 raw text is: COPYRIGHT C 2019 SMU LAW REVIEW ASSOCIATION SMU Law Review Forum Volume 72 September 20191- SHOULD GOOD PEOPLE BE DOCTORS? A COMMENT ON PAUL BUTLER AND ANONYMOUS Richard Delgado TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION II. THE ARGUMENT THAT THERE ARE BETTER USES FOR ONE'S REFORMIST ENERGY AND SKILL III. THE ARGUMENT THAT THERE IS ALWAYS A BETTER JOB A. SHOULD GOOD PEOPLE BE DOCTORS? IV. IS PROSECUTION SUCH EVIL WORK THAT NO ONE SHOULD PERFORM IT? V. THE YOUNG PROSECUTOR AS DOUBLE AGENT VI. CONCLUSION I. INTRODUCTION This is a nervous period for progressive people. The advent of an administration seemingly dedicated to mass cruelty' has raised concerns over the line between conscionable and unconscionable work-always high-to fever pitch, and produced much soul-searching and some very good writing. In a much- discussed book chapter entitled Should Good People Be Prosecutors?, Paul Butler concludes that the answer to his own question is no, based largely on the harm that working in a prosecutor's office can do to one's personal commitments and soul.' A recent Note in Harvard Law Review comes to much the same conclusion, but based on broader, systemic considerations-working for a * John J. Sparkman Chair of Law, University of Alabama. Thanks to Jean Stefancic, Joyce Vance, and Chisolm Allenlundy for invaluable comments and suggestions. 1. For example, separating children from their parents at the border, maintaining prison systems that are largely black and Latino, banning Muslims from traveling to this country, and referring to African nations as shithole countries. 2. PAUL BUTLER, LET'S GET FREE: A HiP HOP THEORY OF JUSTICE 101-02 (2009) ([Pirosecuting crimes brings questions about the ... morality of American criminal justice into sharp relief.). The chapter puts forward a number of other reasons for avoiding prosecuting work, but this one seems central to Paul Butler's argument. 1

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