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Prudence Is Not Blind
I thoroughly enjoyed Elliott Schwebach’s “The Nature of Justice” [October 2024 Bar News]. Whenever justice in the abstract comes up, I like to remind my colleagues that Lady Justice had a twin sister: Prudence. Prudence, another cardinal virtue, is the muscle that helps us “reason toward justice and then choose to act accordingly—i.e., in ways that are just,” to quote Schwebach’s summary of Platonism. Unlike her sister, Prudence is not blind. In fact, her token is a mirror. The law must be “impartial, universal, and relevant”; therefore, the scales of Lady Justice must be administered “blindly” to a degree. However, Prudence acts as her eyes and ears, watching for internal biases and grotesque outcomes. Interestingly, Prudence is also associated with a serpent, and “prudent” turns out to be the best translation of a’rum, the descriptor for the na’hash in Genesis 3:1 (see also Matthew 10:16). I think the ancient creation story of Adam and Eve can be well understood by us as an essay on justice and prudence: Prudence holds a mirror up to us and humbles us. She reminds us we were once naked, and in need of the covering of the law. All this to say, a prudent and ethical lawyer is more likely to secure a just outcome for her client, and I try to keep the nature of justice up front in my practice. I look forward to more entries in this column.
Jesse J. Eldred, Auburn
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