In a speech before members of the Federal Bar Association in 1986, Judge Peter Fay, who sat in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, spoke about the ethical implications attorneys face in a field in which economic and social expectations are constantly changing.

“The U.S. Attorneys who prosecute your clients are young scumheads,” Fay said, citing one of the attorneys speaking before a meeting of 200 criminal defense lawyers in Key West. Fay added a comment by a second attorney: “Most of the judges who hear our cases are disgusting pieces of [expletive].”