Editorial: No lie: Finneran lost his right

There is no higher obligation for officers of the court than to uphold the honesty and integrity of the judicial system.

To that end, when a lawyer is convicted of felony perjury charges - lying under oath during sworn testimony - then that attorney has shown little regard for his understanding of the law and forfeits any right to practice in Massachusetts.

If former House Speaker Thomas Finneran, who pleaded guilty in January to lying about his involvement in a redistricting plan, thinks he has served sufficient penance for smugly co-opting the legislative and legal process, then he has learned nothing about how his actions damaged the system and the public's faith.

Finneran, whose district once included parts of Milton, is seeking to regain his law license after a one-year suspension, rather than a more lengthy period of time.

U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan wrote a letter in June to the Board of Bar Overseers that was just unveiled cautioning the board against restoring Finneran's right to practice law because he's shown no contrition and little feel for the breadth of his malfeasance.

It's unclear whether the board will admit Sullivan's letter into the record at the December hearing but Finneran's lawyer wants Sullivan to testify so they can cross-examine him.

That, though, is a hollow argument. Finneran's admission of guilt in lying to prosecutors in exchange for dropping three other counts of perjury, 18 months probation, a $25,000 fine and forfeiting his right to run for office for at least five years speaks volumes about what federal prosecutors had on the one-time kingmaker. This was no ham sandwich they indicted.

Finneran lost his cushy half-million dollar a year job as president of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council by pleading guilty but seems to have landed on his feet as a highly paid talk radio host.

And that's fine. Even convicted felons need to make a living to reduce recidivism rates and if Finneran has found someone willing to employ him in a lawful job, society is that much the better.

But whether a defendant is the former most powerful man in the state or a recent law school grad, you cannot willfully violate the law and then embrace it as an officer of the court.

Finneran needs to be barred for at least the time he would have spent in jail to prevent him from sullying the state's laws any more than he has and any action that restores his bar license sets a bad precedent for all future convicted felons.