Should trial lawyers make terror policy?

Who should make US policy concerning terrorism: the president and Congress, who serve the nation's interests, or the trial lawyers, who seek to profit for themselves? Ted Frank of the American Enterprise Institute looks at the issue in a September paper titled, "Should trial lawyers make terror policy?"

Among the trial lawyers at work, Frank notes, is Daniel Callahan, who is trying to make millions by suing Blackwater on behalf of family members of the four security men who were murdered and mutilated by Islamist militants in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004.

Callahan, Frank writes, "is clear that his goal is more than simple recovery for his clients: 'As we expose Blackwater in this case, it will also expose the inefficient and corrupt system that exists over there [in Iraq].' He has successfully lobbied the Democratic Congress to hold hearings that promote his litigation, in part by calling Blackwater an 'extremely Republican' company."