Really, it's not lobbying

N&O Triangle Grammar Guide blog

Thanks for the comments and for understanding about my slow response. I appreciate your three valid points.
The usage on "lobby" does seem to have loosened quite a bit.
687 lips!? That's a very good catch. We definitely should have fixed that.

I agree that lobby has loosened. But it remains an extremely disrespectful way to refer to courtroom proceedings - disrespectful mainly to our judicial system itself, but at the same time denigrating the issue and its advocate.

Lobby, as a verb, is not a synonym for request or even for advocate - the reason we have so many words in the English language is so we can clearly express true meaning, and this usage flat fails that test. At best, it is incorrect, and at worst it editorializes.