Supreme Court of the United States in fiction

Court-centered fiction has been distinctively more successful in some media than others. For example, author Anthony Franze explained in an essay in The Strand the allure of writing fictional novels set in the Supreme Court, noting that as a location it has "an air of mystery", as well as interesting characters, a unique language, history, and tradition, and that it provides "a backdrop of unparalleled stakes".^[4]

On the other hand, television series centered on dramatizing the happenings of the court have proven to be short-lived, and have tended to receive overall negative critical reaction.^[5][6][3] One reason that has been suggested is that the Supreme Count is a court of appeals, whereas most legal drama portrays trial courts. Appeals may appear "bookish" in contrast to the theatrical storytelling of trials, especially juries. Furthermore, American audiences are not very knowledgeable about or interested in the Supreme Court.^[7]

Fictional accounts of the Supreme Court began with literary works. Of these it has been noted by Maxwell Bloomfield that "the earliest glimpses of the Court in American fiction occur as set pieces in satirical travelogues", with characters visiting the United States Capitol (which initially housed the Supreme Court), wherein "the furniture is described in greated detail than the Justices, who are pictured as emblems of republican virtue: aged, wise, and serene beings who are capable of listening to boring arguments for days without murmur".^[8] Bloomfield describes as representative of these works the 1822 George Watterston comic novel The L— Family at Washington; or, A Winter in the Metropolis,^[8] which provides descriptions of the courtroom and Justices Marshall and Washington, stating of the court, "its organization is as perfect as it can be, so far as it concerns its independence, the most important and excellent principle in the constitution of all judiciary establishments".^[9] Early depictions of the court demonstrated a lack of knowledge of its procedures and internal administration.^[8]

This was generally the tenor of mentions of the court in literature throughout the 19th century, a notable exception being the 1897 novel Waiting for the Signal by Henry O. Morris, in which the court is criticized as a tool for the wealthy to exercise power. In the novel, "through its subservience to corporate wealth the Court unwittingly starts a revolution" by deeming labor organizations illegal under the Sherman Antitrust Act, leading to the writing of a new constitution.^[8] In 1901, the court decided the Insular Cases, issuing convoluted and deeply divided opinions with the net effect that the Constitution did not follow the flag. American journalist and humorist Finley Peter Dunne, through his cartoon character, Mr. Dooley, took advantage of the opportunity to puncture the court's ivory-tower reputation, writing "no matther whether th' constitution follows th' flag or not, th' Supreme Court follows th' iliction returns.^{[3]: 62 [10]} The 1907 novel The Radical, by Isaac Kahn Friedman depicted a justice as having been "inexorably conditioned by his socioeconomic background" to find laws prohibiting child labor unconstitutional.^[8] The 1910 Robert Herrick novel, A Life for a Life, "portrayed the Justices as ancient logic-machines, programmed to respond only to the legal formulae of a preindustrial age".^[8]

In the 1937 musical, I'd Rather Be Right, with a book by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman and lyrics by Lorenz Hart, President Franklin D. Roosevelt attempts to balance the budget to help Peggy Jones (Joy Hodges) and her boyfriend Phil (Austin Marshall), who needs a raise in order for them to get married. The Supreme Court justices intercede and declare each of Roosevelt's attempted solutions unconstitutional, ultimately declaring even the constitution itself unconstitutional, and deeming the court itself to be the only thing still constitutional.^{[3]: 63 [8]}

Several novels and plays produced in the 1960s and 1970s presented character studies of fictional Supreme Court justices, including the 1963 Andrew Tully novel, Supreme Court, the 1966 William Woolfolk novel, Opinion of the Court, the 1972 Jay Broad play, A Conflict of Interest, the 1973 Henry Denker novel, A Place for the Mighty, the 1979 Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee play, First Monday in October, and the 1979 Walter F. Murphy novel, The Vicar of Christ.^[8]: 93 Maxwell Bloomfield describes the "common format" of these works as follows:

A new justice is appointed to the Court. He or she meets the brethren, each of whom expresses a clearly articulated juristic philosophy and displays some distinguishing personal eccentricity. The physical and intellectual traits of living Justices are carefully scrambled, so that recognizable liberals come out sounding like conservatives, and vice-versa. The new appointee finds himself immersed at once in a series of dramatic cases. These generally involve recent civil rights issues that have been widely discussed in the media. After hearing oral argument the Justices deliberate gravely, even portentously, with one another.^[8]: 93

In The Vicar of Christ, the main character, Declan Walsh, follows a particularly improbable course. Beginning as a decorated war hero in the Korean War, he" becomes successively dean of a law school, chief justice of the Supreme Court, a Trappist, monk, and finally pope".^[11] In addition to the legal and operational dimensions, Bloomfield notes that these works tend to introduce some kind of romantic or sexual tension or scandal that humanizes the judges, and that the stories often involve judges at odds coming together to defend the institution of the court from external criticism.^[8]: 94

More recent literature involving the Supreme Court has tended to come in the genre of legal thrillers and murder mysteries, such as Murder in the Supreme Court (1982), by Margaret Truman,^[1] The Pelican Brief (1992), by John Grisham,^[2][1] and The Tenth Justice (1997), by Brad Meltzer.^[1] These works tend to begin with the murder of someone connected to the Court—typically a justice or an important Court employee. As the mystery is unraveled, this turns out to be part of a much larger conspiracy to influence the outcome of a decision with national implications. Christopher Buckley, in his 2008 novel, Supreme Courtship, presents a less common genre, a romantic comedy in which "his protagonist, the folksy television judge Pepper Cartwright, not only joins the Supreme Court but also marries its unhappy Chief Justice, Declan Hardwether, giving the novel the traditional comedic ending of marriage".^[12]

Discover more about Literature related topics

George Watterston

George Watterston

George Watterston was the third Librarian of the United States Congress from 1815 to 1829.

Insular Cases

Insular Cases

The Insular Cases are a series of opinions by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1901 about the status of U.S. territories acquired in the Spanish–American War. Some scholars also include cases regarding territorial status decided up until 1914, and others include related cases as late as 1979. The term "insular" signifies that the territories were islands administered by the War Department's Bureau of Insular Affairs. Today, the categorizations and implications put forth by the Insular Cases still govern the United States' territories.

Finley Peter Dunne

Finley Peter Dunne

Finley Peter Dunne was an American humorist, journalist and writer from Chicago. In 1898 Dunne published Mr. Dooley in Peace and in War, a collection of his nationally syndicated Mr. Dooley sketches. Speaking with the thick verbiage and accent of an Irish immigrant from County Roscommon, the fictional Mr. Dooley expounded upon political and social issues of the day from his South Side Chicago Irish pub. Dunne's sly humor and political acumen won the support of President Theodore Roosevelt, a frequent target of Mr. Dooley's barbs. Dunne's sketches became so popular and such a litmus test of public opinion that they were read each week at White House cabinet meetings.

I'd Rather Be Right

I'd Rather Be Right

I'd Rather Be Right is a 1937 musical with a book by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, and music by Richard Rodgers. The story is a Depression-era political satire set in New York City about Washington politics and political figures such as President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The plot centers on Peggy Jones and her boyfriend Phil, who needs a raise in order for them to get married. The President steps in and solves their dilemma.

Moss Hart

Moss Hart

Moss Hart was an American playwright, librettist, and theater director.

George S. Kaufman

George S. Kaufman

George Simon Kaufman was an American playwright, theater director and producer, humorist, and drama critic. In addition to comedies and political satire, he wrote several musicals for the Marx Brothers and others. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the musical Of Thee I Sing in 1932, and won again in 1937 for the play You Can't Take It with You. He also won the Tony Award for Best Director in 1951 for the musical Guys and Dolls.

Lorenz Hart

Lorenz Hart

Lorenz Milton Hart was an American lyricist and half of the Broadway songwriting team Rodgers and Hart. Some of his more famous lyrics include "Blue Moon", "The Lady Is a Tramp", "Manhattan", "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", and "My Funny Valentine".

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, commonly known as FDR, was an American statesman and political leader who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. He previously served as the 44th governor of New York from 1929 to 1933, the Assistant Secretary of the Navy from 1913 to 1920, and a member of the New York State Senate from 1911 to 1913.

Joy Hodges

Joy Hodges

Joy Hodges was an American singer and actress who performed on radio, on film, on Broadway, and with big bands.

Andrew Tully

Andrew Tully

Andrew F. Tully Jr. was an American war reporter, writer and columnist. He also wrote some 18 fiction and non-fiction books, translated in multiple languages. As a war reporter for the Boston Traveler, he was one of the few American journalists to enter Berlin with the Russians in April 1945. He wrote the column Capital Fare from 1961 until 1987.

Henry Denker

Henry Denker

Henry Denker was an American novelist and playwright.

Jerome Lawrence

Jerome Lawrence

Jerome Lawrence was an American playwright and author. After graduating from the Ohio State University in 1937 and the University of California, Los Angeles in 1939, Lawrence partnered with Robert Edwin Lee to help create Armed Forces Radio. The two built a partnership over their lifetimes, and continued to collaborate on screenplays and musicals until Lee's death in 1994.

Among the earliest films with a focus on a justice of the Supreme Court is the 1942 film, The Talk of the Town, starring Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, and Ronald Colman.^[12] In the film, Colman plays distinguished law professor Michael Lightcap, who has just learned that he is to be nominated to the Supreme Court. Grant plays Leopold Dilg a radical fugitive who takes refuge at the home of Jean Arthur's character, Nora Shelley, which is being rented by Lightcap. The film sets up a comedic love triangle with Dilg and Lightcap competing for Shelley's affection, and culminates with Lightcap being appointed to the court. An examination of the film in the context of reviewing court-related fiction notes that in addition to the romantic contest between the male leads, there is a philosophical one between Lightcap as "a Supreme Court nominee who views the law as a rational construct distinct from what he dismisses as the 'small emotions' of ordinary life, and Leopold Dilg, a vibrant, iconoclastic activist who believes that Lightcap must be 'thawed' before he can be trusted to join the Court".^[12] This emotional reform is demonstrated when Shelley visits Lightcap in his chambers and he tells her that his dream of 20 years has been realized, and suggests that Shelley should marry Dilg. Both Dilg and Shelley attend court at the first seating of Lightcap as an associate justice.^[12]

The 1981 film version of the play, First Monday in October, presented a story about the first woman on the Supreme Court. The film came out the year Sandra Day O'Connor became the first woman on the court. The film was based on a Broadway production which had opened in 1978, and starred Jane Alexander as the central Justice Ruth Loomis.^[12] In the film, "the conservative new appointee Ruth Loomis and the venerable liberal lion Dan Snow, spar over the law", but "appear to be sliding toward a romantic relationship in the manner of conventional Hollywood comedies". The film, however, "chooses instead to have Ruth and Dan discover that their jurisprudential disagreements are a vital source of judicial strength rather than a prelude to romance", with Snow convincing Loomis not to resign from the court over unethical conduct revealed to have been engaged in by her deceased husband.^[12]

In 1980, the workings of the court were portrayed in the television film, Gideon's Trumpet, dramatizing the case of Gideon v. Wainwright, which secured the right to counsel for the indigent.^[3]: 74 A 1991 television film, Separate but Equal, "celebrated the Court's decisions ending segregation" in the 1954 case of Brown v. Board of Education,^[3]: 73 and the 1996 film, The People vs. Larry Flynt portrays the court in a positive light in its decision protecting the First Amendment rights of pornographer Larry Flynt in parodying Jerry Falwell.^[3]: 74 The court is thus presented as "defender of the Constitutional rights of even unpopular causes or despicable characters".^[3]: 74

The 2013 HBO television film, Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight, provided a partly fictionalized depiction of the Supreme Court's deliberations in the case of Clay v. United States, in which the court threw out the criminal conviction of Muhammad Ali for refusing to report for induction into the United States military during the Vietnam War. The film was based on the 2000 book Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight: Cassius Clay vs. the United States of America by Howard Bingham and Max Wallace.^[13][14] Hank Stuever of The Washington Post commented that the film, focused as it was on the behind-the-scenes legal discussion of the Supreme Court's justices and law clerks, and depicting one of Justice Harlan's law clerks (a character that was "a fictional composite of several clerks") as playing a central role in the court's decision to free Ali, was at times "too much like a substandard episode of The Paper Chase" and "more Wikipedia entry than story, as characters speak to one another in long paragraphs of legal exposition". The Post did have positive comments about the lead performances of Christopher Plummer as Justice John Marshall Harlan II, and Frank Langella as Chief Justice Warren E. Burger.^[13] Christopher Howse of The Daily Telegraph said the film "was worth watching in the comfort of the home, but if it had been shown in a cinema, it would hardly have been worth stirring from the fireside for".^[15] Mary McNamara of the Los Angeles Times also commented on the excellent performances of the cast, while concluding that "[t]he legal wrangling of eight old white men behind closed doors simply pales in comparison" to Ali's part of the story.^[16]

Loving is a 2016 American biographical romantic drama film which tells the story of Richard and Mildred Loving, the plaintiffs in the 1967 U.S. Supreme Court (the Warren Court) decision Loving v. Virginia, which invalidated state laws prohibiting interracial marriage.^{[17][18][19][20]}

The 2018 film, On the Basis of Sex, depicts the circuit court ruling in Moritz v. Commissioner, which the Supreme Court refused to take up. The final scene shows Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg climbing the steps of the Supreme Court building.^[21]

Discover more about Film related topics

Cary Grant

Cary Grant

Cary Grant was an English-American actor. He was known for his Mid-Atlantic accent, debonair demeanor, light-hearted approach to acting, and sense of comic timing. He was one of classic Hollywood's definitive leading men from the 1930s until the mid-1960s. He was nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Actor, and in 1970 he was presented an Academy Honorary Award by his friend Frank Sinatra at the 42nd Academy Awards. He was accorded the Kennedy Center Honors in 1981. In 1999, the American Film Institute named him the second greatest male star of Golden Age Hollywood cinema, trailing only Humphrey Bogart.

Jean Arthur

Jean Arthur

Jean Arthur was an American Broadway and film actress whose career began in silent films in the early 1920s and lasted until the early 1950s.

First Monday in October (film)

First Monday in October (film)

First Monday in October is a 1981 American comedy-drama film from Paramount Pictures, produced by Paul M. Heller and Martha Scott, directed by Ronald Neame, that is based on the 1978 play of the same name by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee. The film stars Walter Matthau and Jill Clayburgh. The cast also co-stars Jan Sterling in her final feature film role.

Jane Alexander

Jane Alexander

Jane Alexander is an American actress and author. She is the recipient of two Primetime Emmy Awards, a Tony Award, and nominations for four Academy Awards, and three Golden Globe Awards. From 1993 to 1997, Alexander served as the chairwoman of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Gideon's Trumpet

Gideon's Trumpet

Gideon's Trumpet is a 1964 book by Anthony Lewis describing the story behind the 1963 landmark court case Gideon v. Wainwright, in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that criminal defendants have the right to an attorney even if they cannot afford one. In 1965, the book won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Fact Crime book.

Gideon v. Wainwright

Gideon v. Wainwright

Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963), was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in which the Court ruled that the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution requires U.S. states to provide attorneys to criminal defendants who are unable to afford their own. The case extended the right to counsel, which had been found under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to impose requirements on the federal government, by imposing those requirements upon the states as well.

Brown v. Board of Education

Brown v. Board of Education

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segregated schools are otherwise equal in quality. The decision partially overruled the Court's 1896 decision Plessy v. Ferguson, which had held that racial segregation laws did not violate the U.S. Constitution as long as the facilities for each race were equal in quality, a doctrine that had come to be known as "separate but equal". The Court's decision in Brown paved the way for integration and was a major victory of the civil rights movement, and a model for many future impact litigation cases.

Larry Flynt

Larry Flynt

Larry Claxton Flynt Jr. was an American publisher and the president of Larry Flynt Publications (LFP). LFP mainly produces pornographic magazines, such as Hustler, pornographic videos, and three pornographic television channels named Hustler TV. Flynt fought several high-profile legal battles involving the First Amendment, and unsuccessfully ran for public office. He was paralyzed from the waist down due to injuries sustained in a 1978 assassination attempt by serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin. In 2003, Arena magazine listed him at No. 1 on the "50 Powerful People in Porn" list.

Jerry Falwell

Jerry Falwell

Jerry Laymon Falwell Sr. was an American Baptist pastor, televangelist, and conservative activist. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch in Lynchburg, Virginia. He founded Lynchburg Christian Academy in 1967, founded Liberty University in 1971, and co-founded the Moral Majority in 1979.

HBO

HBO

Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based at Warner Bros. Discovery's corporate headquarters inside 30 Hudson Yards in Manhattan's West Side district. Programming featured on the network consists primarily of theatrically released motion pictures and original television programs as well as made-for-cable movies, documentaries, occasional comedy and concert specials, and periodic interstitial programs.

Clay v. United States

Clay v. United States

Clay v. United States, 403 U.S. 698 (1971), was Muhammad Ali's appeal of his conviction in 1967 for refusing to report for induction into the United States military forces during the Vietnam War. His local draft board had rejected his application for conscientious objector classification. In a unanimous 8–0 ruling, the United States Supreme Court reversed the conviction that had been upheld by the Fifth Circuit.

Conscription in the United States

Conscription in the United States

In the United States, military conscription, commonly known as the draft, has been employed by the U.S. federal government in six conflicts: the American Revolutionary War, the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. The fourth incarnation of the draft came into being in 1940, through the Selective Training and Service Act. It was the country's first peacetime draft. From 1940 until 1973, during both peacetime and periods of conflict, men were drafted to fill vacancies in the U.S. Armed Forces that could not be filled through voluntary means. Active conscription in the United States ended in 1973, when the U.S. Armed Forces moved to an all-volunteer military. However, conscription remains in place on a contingency basis and all male U.S. citizens, regardless of where they live, and male immigrants, whether documented or undocumented, residing within the United States, who are 18 through 25 are required to register with the Selective Service System. United States federal law also continues to provide for the compulsory conscription of men between the ages of 17 and 45 and certain women for militia service pursuant to Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution and 10 U.S. Code § 246.

Supreme Court-centered TV series

Unlike novels and films presenting accounts of the Supreme Court, television series focusing on it as a subject have failed to gain an audience, and have consequently been short-lived. Two television series presenting fictionalized versions of the Supreme Court debuted in 2002, First Monday and The Court. First Monday starred Joe Mantegna and James Garner, with Mantegna portraying a fictional Joseph Novelli, a moderate and potential swing vote recently appointed to a Supreme Court evenly divided between conservatives and liberals. Garner was the conservative Chief Justice.^[5][6] The series lasted for thirteen episodes before its cancellation. The Court starred Sally Field as newly-appointed Justice Kate Nolan, depicted as struggling her way through the political aspects of her occupation.^[22] The Court was cancelled after three episodes, with several more produced but never aired. Both series, aired in the wake of the controversial 2000 Bush v. Gore decision, portrayed the court as divided between camps of differing political ideologies, and shaken up by a newly appointed justice at the center.^[3]: 76

A 2010 series, Outlaw, starred Jimmy Smits as the fictional Cyrus Garza, a Supreme Court justice who resigns from the bench to start his own law firm, as a way to more directly promote the ends of justice. Much like its predecessors, the show was placed on hiatus after three of its eight produced episodes were broadcast, and was never brought back.^[23][24]

TV series with Supreme Court-related storylines

More successful fictional depictions of the Supreme Court have occurred as individual episodes of more acclaimed TV series, with appearances and storylines tailored to the tenor of the series. In courtroom drama series, this is typically in the form of cases culminating in arguments before the court. For example, in the Picket Fences episode "May It Please the Court", broadcast on 18 November 1994, defense attorney Douglas Wambaugh (played by Fyvush Finkel) and District Attorney John Littleton (played by Don Cheadle) engaged in oral arguments before the Court (with actors playing the real justices); Supreme Court oral argument veteran Alan Dershowitz guest starred as himself, advising Wambaugh on strategy for addressing the Court.^[25] The case dealt with the admissibility of a murderer's confession. In Boston Legal, Alan Shore and Denny Crane argue two cases before the Supreme Court during the series. In "The Court Supreme", Shore argues for overturning the death penalty sentence of a mentally handicapped man convicted of raping a young girl, which was based heavily on the 2008 case Kennedy v. Louisiana. In the series finale "Last Call", Shore returns to the Court to argue for Crane being allowed access to an experimental drug for Alzheimer's disease.^[26] How to Get Away with Murder (Season 4) features a Supreme Court session in episode 13, in which the protagonist, Annalise Keating (Viola Davis), brings a class action suit against the Federal Government for not providing effective public legal counsel, thus violating the 6th Amendment. This episode is also part of the crossover event between the same-universe TV show Scandal, and also features Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington). The court is composed of Chief Justice Peter Montgomery (Jesse D. Goins), Associate Justice Mark Spivey (Tom Irwin), Associate Justice Helen Bass (Cathy Ladman), Associate Justice Alberto Gutierrez (Ruben Pla), Associate Justice Strickland (Denis Arndt) and two other unnamed justices.

In political drama series, plotlines have tended to focus more on the appointment of justices as a political exercise, and on machinations involving the personal lives and predilictions of justices or nominees. For example, The West Wing involved frequent discussions or depictions of fictional past and present Supreme Court justices. Two episodes ("The Short List" in 1999, and "Celestial Navigation" in 2000) center on the nomination of "Roberto Mendoza," played by Edward James Olmos, as the first Hispanic Justice. At the opening of the episode "Celestial Navigation", Mendoza has been arrested for drunk driving and resisting arrest. Sam Seaborn stresses that Mendoza doesn't drink alcohol, telling C. J. Cregg that Mendoza was arrested for "driving while being Hispanic". The sergeant on duty tells Sam that Mendoza's driving was faulty, and that he wasn't sure that Mendoza hadn't been drinking alcohol. Sam responds by informing the officers that Mendoza has a chronic illness that would render any significant drinking fatal. Mendoza expresses frustration at how he'd been treated by the police, having been searched and handcuffed in front of his wife and nine-year old son. Mendoza vowed to use the criminal justice system to acquit himself, instead of letting the White House get him out, but is persuaded that he could make a much bigger difference on the Supreme Court, and that he would be unable to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate if the story circulates. Mendoza agrees to be released and the officers' apologize to Mendoza and to his son, with the incident remaining off the record. Writing for the Daily Bruin, Alex Driscoll praised the focus on Mendoza's being racially profiled. Driscoll writes that while Mendoza was released quietly and quickly, many cases of a victim being racially profiled do not have the same outcome. She praises Sorkin for providing attention to the point that race can matter more than guilt or innocence in determining how a suspect is treated by police, and notes that most suspects in this case will not have powerful members of the U.S. government to bail them out, that forms of protest similar to Mendoza's refusing of a breathalyzer test have spread across the United States.^[27] A third episode, "The Supremes" in 2004, dealt with the issue of preserving ideological balance on the Court. The President makes a deal with the Republican Congress to simultaneously appoint a very liberal judge "Evelyn Baker Lang" (played by Glenn Close) as the Court's first female Chief Justice, and a very conservative judge, "Christopher Mulready" (played by William Fichtner) as an Associate Justice. The 2000 episode "Take This Sabbath Day" also opened with a scene depicting the Court's main chamber.

In House of Cards (Season 3), President Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey) is approached by Associate Justice Robert Jacobs (Jonathan Hogan) who requests he be allowed to retire due to having started to develop alzheimers. However, Underwood expresses his desire for Jacobs to remain on the court until he has passed groundbreaking job creation legislation. Underwood later tries to discourage his political rival, Solicitor General Heather Dunbar (Elizabeth Marvel) from running against him by offering her Jacob's place on the court, but she announces her candidacy before he can formally nominate her. Another named member of the court is Associate Justice Moretti (Kris Andrews). The court is shown to be composed of three women and six men, two of whom are African-American. Scandal (Season 2) features Associate Justice Verna Thornton (Debra Mooney) as a primary antagonist for the first half of the second season. Aware that President Fitzgerald Thomas Grant III (Tony Goldwyn) ascended to the presidency through voter fraud in Defiance County, Ohio she attempted to have him assassinated. Suffering with terminal cancer, she was pressured by Vice President Sally Langston (Kate Burton) to give up her seat, which she refused. She is eventually suffocated in hospital by President Grant so she cannot reveal the truth about his election, with her death being made to look like the result of the cancer.

Political Animals (2012 miniseries) features Associate Justice Diane Nash (Vanessa Redgrave), the first openly gay member of the court. She serves as a friend and mentor to Secretary of State Elaine Barrish (Sigourney Weaver).^[28] Madam Secretary (Seasons 2, 3 and 4) features occasional appearances of Chief Justice Frawley (Morgan Freeman), a close friend of Secretary of State Elizabeth McCord (Tea Leoni). Freeman also serves as an executive producer for the show. Veep (Season 6) sees former President Stuart Hughes nominated to a vacant position on the Supreme Court by President Laura Montez (Andrea Savage) after the death of Associate Justice Tenny. Hughes becomes the second person after William Howard Taft to serve as both President and as a Supreme Court justice.

Discover more about Television related topics

First Monday

First Monday

First Monday is an American legal drama television series which aired on CBS during the midseason replacement from January 15 to May 3, 2002. The series centered on the U.S. Supreme Court. Like another 2002 series, The Court, it was inspired by the prominent role the Supreme Court played in settling the 2000 presidential election. However, public interest in the Supreme Court had receded by the time the two shows premiered, and neither was successful.

Joe Mantegna

Joe Mantegna

Joseph Anthony Mantegna is an American actor.

James Garner

James Garner

James Garner was an American actor. He played leading roles in more than 50 theatrical films, including The Great Escape (1963) with Steve McQueen; Paddy Chayefsky's The Americanization of Emily (1964) with Julie Andrews; Cash McCall (1960) with Natalie Wood; The Wheeler Dealers (1963) with Lee Remick; Darby's Rangers (1958) with Stuart Whitman; Roald Dahl's 36 Hours (1965) with Eva Marie Saint; Raymond Chandler's Marlowe (1969) with Bruce Lee; Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969) with Walter Brennan; Blake Edwards's Victor/Victoria (1982) with Julie Andrews; and Murphy's Romance (1985) with Sally Field, for which he received an Academy Award nomination. He also starred in several television series, including popular roles such as Bret Maverick in the ABC 1950s Western series Maverick and as Jim Rockford in the NBC 1970s private detective show, The Rockford Files.

Bush v. Gore

Bush v. Gore

Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98 (2000), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court on December 12, 2000, that settled a recount dispute in Florida's 2000 presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore. On December 8, the Florida Supreme Court had ordered a statewide recount of all undervotes, over 61,000 ballots that the vote tabulation machines had missed. The Bush campaign immediately asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the decision and halt the recount. Justice Antonin Scalia, convinced that all the manual recounts being performed in Florida's counties were illegitimate, urged his colleagues to grant the stay immediately. On December 9, the five conservative justices on the Court granted the stay for Bush, with Scalia citing "irreparable harm" that could befall Bush, as the recounts would cast "a needless and unjustified cloud" over Bush's legitimacy. In dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote that "counting every legally cast vote cannot constitute irreparable harm." Oral arguments were scheduled for December 11.

Jimmy Smits

Jimmy Smits

Jimmy L. Smits is an American actor. He is best known for playing attorney Victor Sifuentes on the 1980s-1990s legal drama L.A. Law, NYPD Detective Bobby Simone on the 1990s-2000s police drama NYPD Blue, Matt Santos on the political drama The West Wing, and for appearing in Switch (1991), My Family (1995), The Jane Austen Book Club (2007), and In the Heights (2021). He also appeared as Bail Organa in the Star Wars franchise and as ADA Miguel Prado in Dexter. From 2012 to 2014, he joined the main cast of Sons of Anarchy as Nero Padilla. Smits also portrayed Elijah Strait in the NBC drama series Bluff City Law.

Fyvush Finkel

Fyvush Finkel

Philip "Fyvush" Finkel was an American actor known as a star of Yiddish theater and for his role as lawyer Douglas Wambaugh on the television series Picket Fences, for which he earned an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series in 1994. He is also known for his portrayal of Harvey Lipschultz, a crotchety history teacher, on the television series Boston Public.

Don Cheadle

Don Cheadle

Donald Frank Cheadle Jr. is an American actor. He is the recipient of multiple accolades, including two Grammy Awards, a Tony Award, two Golden Globe Awards and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. He has also earned nominations for an Academy Award, two British Academy Film Awards and 11 Primetime Emmy Awards. His Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony nominations make him one of few black individuals to be nominated for the four major American entertainment awards (EGOT).

Alan Dershowitz

Alan Dershowitz

Alan Morton Dershowitz is an American lawyer and former law professor known for his work in U.S. constitutional law and American criminal law. From 1964 to 2013, he taught at Harvard Law School, where he was appointed the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law in 1993. Dershowitz is a regular media contributor, political commentator, and legal analyst.

Boston Legal

Boston Legal

Boston Legal is an American legal drama and comedy drama television series created by former lawyer and Boston native David E. Kelley, produced in association with 20th Century Fox Television for ABC. The series aired from October 3, 2004, to December 8, 2008. The series stars James Spader, William Shatner and Candice Bergen. It is a direct spin-off and continuation of the TV series The Practice, with several characters from the eighth season of that series moving to Boston Legal. While never a Nielsen ratings smash hit, the show was critically acclaimed, receiving 26 Primetime Emmy Awards nominations, including for Outstanding Drama Series in 2007 and 2008.

Kennedy v. Louisiana

Kennedy v. Louisiana

Kennedy v. Louisiana, 554 U.S. 407 (2008), is a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States that held that the Eighth Amendment's Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause prohibits imposing the death penalty for a crime where the victim did not die.

Experimental drug

Experimental drug

An experimental drug is a medicinal product that has not yet received approval from governmental regulatory authorities for routine use in human or veterinary medicine. A medicinal product may be approved for use in one disease or condition but still be considered experimental for other diseases or conditions. In 2018 federal "Right to Try" laws were enacted in the United States, which allows individuals who fit into the criteria to try experimental drugs that are not yet deemed safe.

Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As the disease advances, symptoms can include problems with language, disorientation, mood swings, loss of motivation, self-neglect, and behavioral issues. As a person's condition declines, they often withdraw from family and society. Gradually, bodily functions are lost, ultimately leading to death. Although the speed of progression can vary, the typical life expectancy following diagnosis is three to nine years.