Picturing Justice, the On-Line Journal of Law and Popular Culture



Rob Waring

 

 

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For those who regard the Court as a battle ground for ideologies propped up by selective use of precedent, the show presents a zone of comfort. Finally, the veneer is off, our suspicions confirmed and we can rest secure in the knowledge that the Court is just another forum for political advocacy.


Feature article

FIRST MONDAY

by Rob Waring

As I have previously written in
Will The West Wing Cause The Left Swing?, liberals may have mastered the use of the television political dramas in influencing voters. In The West Wing, viewers see an idealized left-of-center presidency, the one they didn't get in real life. We'll never know how much this helped Al Gore, but obviously not enough to beat George Bush in the electoral college.

Now comes another experiment in influencing the electorate, First Monday, a show about the Supreme Court we don't have in real life and may not for some time. This fictional Court has a five-four liberal majority and the idea seems to be to demonstrate how much more compassionate and interesting the Court could be if only liberals had the votes. (This is quite a leap from asking what things would be like if there were even one liberal on the Court, which presently there is not.)

On television, some justices who care about the plight of the less fortunate work hard to see that the suckers do in fact get an even break, particularly the newest justice, played by Joe Mantegna. (His character is named Novelli-get it?) The conservative justices seem uncaring and horribly bigoted, but at least they have a sense of humor about their reactionary goals. (The justice played by Charles Durning asks a transgendered party if he wishes to be castrated like a bull.)
If one takes the jurisprudence of the real Court seriously, the first thought is probably to wonder whether First Monday viewers will take more interest in the workings of the real Court. They may receive more knowledge about issues in some of the cases that come before the court, but combined with a distorted view of the process that I leave to others to critique, this may be worse than the result of their pre-First Monday ignorance.

With little for the public to see of members of the real Court but their decisions and denials of certiorari, I'm betting that the justices will seem pretty callous in comparison to their TV brethren. The execution of juveniles, a controversy on First Monday's premiere, is not even an issue for the present Court. It appears split over whether discovery of the actual innocence of defendants in death cases can be untimely and thus irrelevant.

For those who regard the Court as a battle ground for ideologies propped up by selective use of precedent, the show presents a zone of comfort. Finally, the veneer is off, our suspicions confirmed and we can rest secure in the knowledge that the Court is just another forum for political advocacy. Those justices and clerks who want things one way do whatever they can to foil the other side, and their opponents respond in kind. Done up for prime time, it's everything that those disappointed with Bush v. Gore complained about-results-oriented jurisprudence. Seeking the truth is secondary to beating the other guys. The conservative Chief Justice, played by James Garner, sums it up best-his main goal is to trip up the new liberal player before he gets too much influence with the other justices.

I do not have a problem with the present advantage liberals have in television political drama for two reasons. First, I'm a liberal, so any method that gets the word out works for me. Second, money is speech in this electronic information age in which we live, and the conservatives have barrels full. Bush spent twice as much in the election as Gore did, and most of that money came from business interests with a definite agenda. As campaign finance reform is nowhere in sight, Enron or no Enron, using drama to attempt some sort of balance is about the only option we have.

Perhaps people will pay no attention to this show and it will die a quick death. Alternatively, perhaps to a greater extent viewers will see the real Court as more about personalities than process. If so, they may seek more information about the personality and ideology of the next Supreme Court nominee.

If First Monday takes off, Democrats had better hurry up with a show about Congress before Republicans catch on and pilot their own. More likely from Bush would be a combat show about the War on Terrorism as seen a by a globe-hopping special forces unit. Or perhaps a show about the CIA. Wait a minute, that one's already happened! If I die mysteriously next week, you'll know I was right.

But, I'm probably all wrong about this propaganda angle. More likely, if First Monday survives its first season, we'll see less about case appeals and more viewer-appealing devices such as co-ed bathrooms or fantasy song sequences. How long will it take for some of the characters to start sleeping with each other? Stay tuned.



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Posted January 18, 2002

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