Title 42, section 1983 of the United States Code states:
"Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress,{...}
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/42/1983... Under "color of law" = of course lawyers are needed to do dirty work and, of course, a legal opinion from a lawyer is no defense at all where the opinion is unreasonable because it violates civil rights.
