A Brief History Of Awful TV Shows About the Supreme Court
The concept of “The West Wing for the Supreme Court” might be the only thing more upsetting than the actual Supreme Court.
Earlier this month, John Mulaney was spotted in the gallery for oral argument in the Supreme Court’s tariffs case, prompting The Hollywood Reporter to try and figure out the source of a famous comedian’s interest in the scope of the president’s delegated authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977.
The answer is one of those rare sentences that gets more upsetting with each word that passes: Mulaney was there to watch Neal Katyal, one of several lawyers who argued the case, because Mulaney and Katyal are working together on a TV show, which Katyal described at the Aspen Ideas Festival earlier this year as a “West Wing for the Supreme Court.”
This isn’t a huge surprise for Katyal, who, between occasional cameos on prestige TV dramas and a harrowing experience at Burning Man in 2023, is about as close to a niche pop culture celebrity as anyone in his profession could ever hope to get. Mulaney’s interest in such a project might feel more surprising, but he comes by it honestly: His mother is a law professor and his father is a semi-retired Skadden partner, and he’s been making regular appearances in the world of elite liberal lawyers for several years now. In 2023, Katyal introduced Mulaney as “obsessed with constitutional law” during a guest spot on Katyal’s podcast; in 2024, Mulaney moderated a discussion between Katyal and Yale Law School professor Akhil Amar titled “Conversation on Textualist Approaches of Constitutional Interpretation.”
When asked about Mulaney’s presence at oral argument in Learning Resources, Amar described the comedian to Business Insider as “a serious public intellectual with a deep interest in law and American civics.” Amar added that Mulaney has listened to all 250 episodes of Amar’s podcast, Amarica’s Constitution, a description which, if accurate, I cannot imagine applies to literally anyone else.
Historically, shows and movies that revolve around the Supreme Court have run up against the very basic problem that what Supreme Court justices do on a day-to-day basis is deeply boring. First Monday, which aired on CBS in 2002, made it through only one 13-episode season before getting canceled. This was still a better showing than ABC’s The Court, which also debuted in 2002. Despite a cast that included Sally Field, Christina Hendricks before Mad Men, and Josh Radnor before How I Met Your Mother, it got pulled after three weeks.
To have any hope of making good television, TV writers usually have to have fake Supreme Court justices do things that real Supreme Court justices never do, which is fine, but also sort of defeats the purpose of setting a show at the Supreme Court in the first place. Probably my favorite example of this came in 2010 when NBC debuted Outlaw, which followed the exploits of Justice Cyrus Garza (Jimmy Smits) after he unexpectedly stepped down from the Court to take a job as a law firm partner and/or freelance doer of justice.
Each week, Garza would jet off to some new location to take on a high-stakes case that only a former Supreme Court justice and his handpicked team could ever hope to win. Off the clock, Garza spent his time occasionally getting in trouble for counting cards in casinos and trying not to fall too hard for his colleague Claire Sax (Melora Hardin, best known as Jan from The Office).
NBC canceled Outlaw after four episodes anyway, but you can see the trailer here, which transitions effortlessly from Smits sexually harassing a colleague and trying to remember the names of the last three women he’d slept with to his soaring courtroom speech in defense of Gregory Beals (RZA), a man accused of a crime he did not commit.
No word yet on whether Mulaney’s and Katyal’s project will be a drama, a comedy, or some combination thereof. Whatever form it takes, perhaps the personal and professional challenges faced by liberal lawyers who write fawning op-eds praising reactionary Supreme Court nominees in between arguing cases on behalf of alleged carcinogenic talcum powder manufacturers and alleged child slavery profiteers will play a prominent role in character development.
As always, you can find everything we publish at ballsandstrikes.org, or follow us on Bluesky at @ballsandstrikes.org. You can get in touch by emailing us at contact@ballsandstrikes.org. Thanks for reading.
This Week In Balls & Strikes
The Conservative War On Marriage Equality Never Needed Kim Davis, Jay Willis
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Kim Davis’s bid to overturn Obergefell v. Hodges. But in Texas and elsewhere, anti-gay activists are already chipping away at the right that case protects.
Oklahoma Didn’t Kill Tremane Wood, No Thanks to the Supreme Court, Madiba Dennie
The justices used to struggle with the constitutionality of the death penalty. Now, they rubber-stamp it.
The Trump White House Is Trying to Hide Its Judicial Nominees From You, JP Collins
The more the public learns about Trump’s nominees’ unfitness for office, the less time the White House is giving lawmakers, journalists, and the public to do any meaningful vetting.
Sam Alito Very Concerned About the Possibility of People Not Being In Prison For As Long As Possible, Madiba Dennie
Very interesting to see which issues prompt judges to consider the perils of judges deciding cases in line with their personal ideological agendas.
How Congress Can Reclaim Democracy From a Supreme Court Dedicated to Undermining It, Molly Coleman & Jenny Hunter
A new report details how court reform would empower the people through their elected representatives—not the Court’s six-justice conservative supermajority—to decide vital questions about the country’s future.
The Fifth Circuit’s Latest Labor Law Rulings Are a Gift to Elon Musk, Astrid Aune
Some of the largest corporations in America are supporting SpaceX’s challenge to the National Labor Relations Act. Here’s how working people are responding.
This Week In Other Stuff We Appreciated
Kim Davis Is Done. The Supreme Court Is Not Reconsidering Obergefell. What Happens Now?, Chris Geidner, Law Dork
“There is a reason people were afraid that the Supreme Court would take up case. The reason is the Supreme Court itself.”
The Supreme Court Just Took a Scary Voting Case That Has Trump Salivating. He Might Be Disappointed, Rick Hasen, Slate
“It’s no surprise that one of the nation’s Trumpiest federal judges issued an opinion at odds with text, law, and practice to side against voters.”
This Week In Obscure Photos of Supreme Court Justices On Getty Images
As a LAW & ORDER writer from the earliest days of the show — and a former atty who was actually admitted to the SCOTUS bar — I can attest to the fact that trying to develop a pilot/series about judges almost never works. Well, ok, never. That said, if anybody had a chance to work with Neal Katyal he or she’d have to be outta their bloomin’ mind to say no!