Shyster Heaven

The Rule of Lawyers: How the New Litigation Elite Threatens America’s Rule of Law, by Walter K. Olson (St. Martin’s Press, 352 pp., $25.95)

RESPONSIBILITY used to be the hallmark of American freedom. Act as you wish, but accept the consequences: Smoke, get cancer. Eat, get fat. Fall down drunk, get hurt. Just don’t act surprised—and certainly don’t blame anyone else.