Daily Inspiration Quote by Cass Sunstein

Sunstein is aiming at a kind of legal self-myth: the attorney as neutral tool, a hired hand with a spotless conscience and immaculate technique. The line is almost politely worded, but it carries a pointed critique. “Basically instruments” isn’t just description; it’s an ethical diagnosis. He’s naming the posture that says, I don’t own the outcomes, I only deliver the service. And by adding that they “pride themselves” on craft, he’s skewering how professionalism can become a moral alibi: if the work is done elegantly, the question of whether it should be done at all gets treated as amateur hour.

The subtext is a fight over what law is for. In the American adversarial tradition, the “instrument” model is common and, in many settings, defensible: everyone deserves counsel; the system needs zealous advocacy to function. Sunstein is not naïvely unaware of that. He’s targeting the version where role-morality hardens into role-escape, where lawyers launder power through procedure and call it integrity. Craft becomes a badge of honor precisely when the client’s aims are most corrosive.

Contextually, Sunstein’s career sits at the intersection of legal ethics, public administration, and behavioral governance. He’s a scholar attuned to how institutions incentivize self-justifying stories. This remark reads like a warning about professional cultures that reward technical brilliance while discouraging moral imagination. It’s also a quiet challenge: if you’re proud of your craft, proud enough to disappear behind it, you’ve already chosen a side.