Appellate Law

Mr. Shore Argues to SCOTUS

By D. Todd Smith

Believe it or not, I'm a sucker for lawyer TV shows, in part because they're so unrealistic they make me laugh.  I'd pretty much given up on ABC's Boston Legal this season; for various reasons, I thought the show had jumped the shark.  But I couldn't help noticing Tuesday's episode entitled "The Court Supreme," in which James Spader's character, Alan Shore, argues an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of a mentally challenged man facing the death penalty for raping a child.

If you have ever watched the show and have seen one of Alan's politically tinged, closing-argument rants, you can imagine what happened.  (Pssssst.  Hey Alan.  One of the first rules of appellate practice is to save the impassioned jury argument for a jury.  To that, I would add that it's generally a bad idea to insult the Justices from the lectern.)  A 10-minute video clip is available on YouTube.  It's worth watching not only as a reminder of what not to do at an appellate argument, but also for ABC's amazing casting of look-alikes for the High Nine.

Full post as published by Texas Appellate Law Blog on April 24, 2008 (boomark / email).