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Volume Three: Religious Conviction Brigham Young University Law School BYU Law Digital Commons Vol. 3: Religious Conviction Life in the Law 2-12-2013 Volume Three: Religious Conviction Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.byu.edu/life_law_vol3 Recommended Citation "Volume Three: Religious Conviction" (2013). Vol. 3: Religious Conviction. 1. https://digitalcommons.law.byu.edu/life_law_vol3/1 This Complete Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Life in the Law at BYU Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Vol. 3: Religious Conviction by an authorized administrator of BYU Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. We affirm the strength brought to the law by a lawyer’s personal religious conviction. We strive through public service and professional excellence to promote fairness and virtue founded upon the rule of law. J. REUBEN CLARK LAW SOCIETY MISSION STATEMENT life in the law RELIGIOUS CONVICTION EDITED BY JANE H. WISE, SCOTT W. CAMERON, and GALEN L. FLETCHER J. REUBEN CLARK LAW SOCIETY BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL PROVO, UTAH 2013 This volume is the third in a series of essays on being an ethical Christian lawyer. The prior titles are Life in the Law: Answering God’s Interrogatories (2002) Life in the Law: Service & Integrity (2009) © 2013. Brigham Young University Press, J. Reuben Clark Law Society at Brigham Young University. All rights reserved. Opinions expressed in this publication are the opinions of the authors, and their views should not necessarily be attributed to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints, Brigham Young University, the J. Reuben Clark Law Society, or Brigham Young University Law School. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording or in an information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Prepared for publication with the assistance of byu Publications & Graphics, 218 upb, Provo, Utah 84602. To contact J. Reuben Clark Law School or the J. Reuben Clark Law Society, write to 341 jrcb, Brigham Young University, po Box 28000, Provo, Utah 84602. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Life in the law : religious conviction / edited by Scott W. Cameron, Galen L. Fletcher, and Jane H. Wise. pages cm. Includes index. ISBN 978-0-8425-2828-3 (paperback) 1. Christian lawyers—United States. 2. Law—Moral and ethical aspects. 3. Religion and law. 4. Christian ethics—Mormon authors. 5. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints—Doctrines. I. Wise, Jane H., 1951–, editor of compilation. II. Cameron, Scott W. (Scott Wallace), 1946– , editor of compilation. III. Fletcher, Galen L. (Galen LeGrande), 1961–, editor of compilation. IV. J. Reuben Clark Law Society. KF299.C47L54 2013 174’.3—dc23 2012041880 ISBN 978-0-8425-2828-3 Contents James R. Rasband Preface v RELIGIOUS CONVICTION D. Todd Christofferson Law and Becoming 3 Elizabeth A. Clark Becoming a Fruitful Tree: Christ and the Limits of Legal Thinking 13 Bruce C. Hafen Ambiguity in Law and in Life 27 James R. Rasband Unto Whom Much Is Given 39 Cecil O. Samuelson Testimony of Jesus Christ 49 PUBLIC SERVICE J. Reuben Clark Jr. To Them of the Last Wagon 63 Quentin L. Cook Latter-day Saint Lawyers and the Public Square 71 David Dominguez A Walk of Thanksgiving 83 Carl S. Hawkins The Work of Serving Others 89 Steven E. Snow Musings of a Small-Town Lawyer 99 Seth P. Waxman Civic Virtue 107 PROFESSIONAL EXCELLENCE Mehrsa Baradaran Education Multipliers 115 Ming W. Chin Liberty, Civility, and Professionalism 121 Robert M. Daines Lock In: Loved Ones and Lawyers 131 iv Contents Annette W. Jarvis Serve God, Love Me, and Mend 139 John W. Welch The 21st Century as the Century of Duties? 147 FAIRNESS AND VIRTUE Scott W. Cameron Repairers of the Breach 161 L. Whitney Clayton He Answered Discreetly 171 Matthew B. Durrant The Lawyer as Peacemaker 181 Kristin B. Gerdy The Heart of Lawyering: Clients, Empathy, and Compassion 189 H. Reese Hansen We Are to Love God and Our Neighbors 203 Brett G. Scharffs The Most Important Three Things in the World 215 RULE OF LAW Larry Echo Hawk Empowered by Education and Vision 231 Monroe G. McKay Hysteria and the Bill of Rights 237 Thomas D. Morgan Heroes for Our Time: Going Beyond Ethical Codes 245 Dallin H. Oaks Preserving Religious Freedom 251 David A. Thomas A Law Upon Which All Blessings Are Predicated 269 Index of Chapter Authors 279 Index 281 Preface James R. Rasband This collection of essays continues byu Law School’s effort to build an architecture of ideas to assist lawyers in their endeavor to integrate reli- gious faith with commitment to the highest professional ideals. The mani- festation of that effort with which readers will likely be most familiar is the Law School’s twice-yearly publication of the Clark Memorandum. The Life in the Law series, of which this is the third volume, recaptures high- lights from the Clark Memorandum and also collects from other settings some of the most thoughtful insights by lds lawyers and lawyers of other faiths. These essays acknowledge that while the law is a noble profession, it is fraught with potholes and traps for the unwary. In The Pilgrim’s Progress John Bunyan provided an allegory to assist 17th-century travelers as they wended their way from this world to the heavenly city. With wit and wis- dom, the contributors to Life in the Law: Religious Conviction undertake a similar challenge for 21st-century lawyers. My hope is that this essay collection, the Clark Memorandum, and the other work we do at byu Law School to erect an architecture of rigorous thinking about the relationship among religious faith, the rule of law, and professional service will have an enduring influence on our commitment to each of these precepts. In addition to the three compilers and the chapter authors, there are various members of BYU Law School and the campus community I would like to thank for their contributions to Life in the Law: Religious Conviction. These include Anne Apuakehau, Jeanette Befus, Cameron Carter, Jaylen Dodd, Dave Eliason, Diane Foerster, Matt Imbler, Lena Harper, Jessica Jones, Doug Maxwell, Robert L. Maxwell, Natalie Miles, Marny Parkin, and Bjorn Pendleton. v vi Preface James R. Rasband received his jd from Harvard University in 1989 and clerked for Judge J. Clifford Wallace of the u.s. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit 1989–1990. He served as associate dean of research and academic affairs at J. Reuben Clark Law School 2004–2007 and associate academic vice president for faculty at Brigham Young University 2008–2009. The lead author of the textbook Natural Resources Law and Policy, 2nd ed. (2009), he is currently the Hugh W. Colton Professor of Law and dean of J. Reuben Clark Law School. RELIGIOUS CONVICTION Each of us having a testimony of Jesus as the Christ has a heavy and great responsibility to live our life so that our conduct will match our convictions. CECIL O. SAMUELSON (P. 58) Law and Becoming D. Todd Christofferson I have titled my remarks this evening “Law and Becoming.” By this I mean to talk about the vital role of law in what we may become. In speak- ing of becoming, I am taking the long view not only of what a person may be able to make of himself or herself in the space between birth and death, but also of the eternal potential of men and women. And, in speaking of law, I want to reference not only matters of our codes and courts but also the laws of God. Through revelations granted to the Prophet Joseph and his predeces- sors, we learn some profound things about our relationship to God and our ultimate destiny. We learn that Jesus Christ, as the Son of God, pro- gressed “from grace to grace, until he received a fulness”1 and that we may follow in that same path. He said, “For if you keep my commandments you shall receive of his fulness, and be glorified in me as I am in the Father; therefore, I say unto you, you shall receive grace for grace.”2 In explaining the natural conclusion of this pattern, Joseph Smith said: Here, then, is eternal life—to know the only wise and true God; and you have got to learn how to be gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, . by going from one small degree to another, and from a small capacity to a great one; from grace to grace, from exaltation to exaltation, until you attain to the resurrec- tion of the dead, and are able to dwell in everlasting burnings, and to sit in glory, as do those who sit enthroned in everlasting power.3 Joseph Smith also referred to God’s use of law in this process: The first principles of man are self-existent with God. God himself, find- ing he was in the midst of spirits and glory, because he was more intelligent, saw proper to institute laws whereby the rest could have a privilege to advance like himself. The relationship we have with God places us in a situation to advance in knowledge. He has power to institute laws to instruct the weaker intelligences, that they may be exalted with Himself, so that they might have one glory upon another.4 3 4 Law and Becoming I cite one more teaching from the Prophet that adds the remaining element to this equation—agency: All persons are entitled to their agency, for God has so ordained it.
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