ABSTRACT
What does God require of lawyers who are people of faith in the criminal justice system? In this Chapter, we explore the implications for lawyers of the prophet Micah’s teaching that we should “do justly,” “love mercy,” and “walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). Although the dominant conception of the lawyer’s role requires that lawyers “bleach out” their identity as neutral partisans, we apply the perspective of the Religious Lawyering movement that lawyers should integrate their faith and their work. From that framework and the belief that all people are created in God’s image, which we draw from our respective Christian and Jewish backgrounds, we consider how lawyers from different faith traditions should bring the values of doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly to their work in the criminal justice system. In their daily work, these values will enhance and enrich their ability to fulfill their professional roles as prosecutors and criminal defense lawyers. In their public leadership, these values will lead religious lawyers to discern both a prophetic and a practical response to systemic evils in the criminal justice system. To illustrate this point, we employ a framework for responding to the interrelated challenges of restorative justice and reparation. We suggest that this framework will have implications for the way lawyers approach the criminal justice system more broadly.
