All 5 Uses of

advocate
in
Letter from a Birmingham Jail

How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?
*

advocate = publicly support

I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws.†

advocate = recommend or publicly support

The other force is one of bitterness and hatred, and it comes perilously close to advocating violence.†

advocating = recommending or publicly supporting

In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law, as would the rabid segregationist.†

If today I lived in a Communist country where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I would openly advocate disobeying that country's antireligious laws.†

Definitions:

(1) (advocate as in: to advocate)
to recommend or publicly support (someone or something)
(2) (advocate as in: an advocate supporting)
a person who publicly supports and works to advance a cause

or more rarely:

someone acting in the role of a defense lawyer in England's past and in some jurisdictions today
(3) (advocate as in: an advocate in court)
a lawyer or officer of the court in some jurisdictions in Europe, colonial America, and the military
(4) (devil's advocate as in: I'll play the devil's advocate)
a person who takes an unpopular position to encourage debate or test ideas