Most people think freedom is defended in big Supreme Court showdowns or celebrated with fireworks on the Fourth of July. But real freedom—the kind that protects actual people from the machine—gets defended by someone disagreeable enough to say: “No.”

Disagreeable doesn’t mean rude. It means refusing to go along when going along is easier. It means making noise when silence would be more polite. It means filing the complaint, the motion, or the lawsuit that everyone else talks about—but nobody else wants their name on.

Bar associations won’t do it. Elected officials won’t touch it. Comfortable lawyers stay comfortable. So who does that leave?

The Role of IACLS

At IACLS, we don’t build consensus before we act. We see a legal abuse, a pattern of misconduct, or a broken piece of the system—and we go after it. Not to make friends. Not to be popular. But because someone has to.

Disagreeable people stopped judges from coercing pleas. Disagreeable people shut down mass-text solicitations to the newly arrested. Disagreeable people got unethical bail practices challenged and reversed. They didn’t wait for permission, and they didn’t care about backlash.

Why It Matters

There’s a place for diplomacy. But not when rights are being stripped in open court. Not when misconduct is normalized through silence. In those moments, being agreeable helps no one. Being disagreeable is a professional obligation.

We exist to make it easier for defense lawyers to do their job. That means filing what others won’t, challenging what others tolerate, and systematizing the parts of practice no one else has time to fix.

Freedom doesn’t survive on consensus. It survives on friction. And friction needs someone who’s willing to push back.

Be disagreeable. Or back someone who is. Support IACLS.