Meta: Mourning SCOTUS (HTGAWM s4)-- DFvQ

[xandromedovna]

CW: institutional racism and racist violence

On 24 June 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed their 6-3 ruling (infamously leaked a month previously) in Dobbs v. Jackson overturning both Roe v. Wade (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992). A boldly reactionary move flouting the principle of stare decisis, Dobbs is one of this Court’s many alarmingly conservative decisions this session. The current court has curbed the EPA’s ability to enforce climate change regulations (West Virginia v. EPA), walked back Indigenous sovereignty (Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta), re-opened the door to in-school prayer (Kennedy v. Bremerton), struck down a concealed carry law (NYSRPA v. Bruen), and curtailed Miranda rights (Vega v. Tekoh). Despite Trump no longer being in power, the three Justices he was able to place have changed the tenor of the Court for decades to come.

 

Also on 24 June 2022, I finally was able to pick up the DVDs for Scandal season 7 from the library, allowing me to watch the two-hour Scandal/HTGAWM crossover special (7x12, 4x13 respectively; trying to obtain the episode through ‘other methods’ was its own saga so I gave up and decided to support my local library). The episodes, “Allow Me to Reintroduce Myself” and “Leahy v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania”, feature Annalise going to D.C. to argue Nate Leahy Sr.’s case before SCOTUS, aided by Olivia Pope. As a result of their collaboration, the Supreme Court rules that the current public defender system systematically violates people’s 6^th Amendment rights to effective counsel. Her victory at SCOTUS sets up the conflict for the remaining two seasons as she goes toe-to-toe with Governor Birkhead over how to implement the ruling in Pennsylvania.

This bizarre coincidence created such a bittersweet resonance while I was watching these episodes. This was my third time seeing them (once when broadcast, once when I binged Scandal early pandemic), so I knew how they went, but the difference between the 2018 court, when the episodes first aired halfway through the Trump presidency, and the 2022 court is palpable. Despite the fact that the court Annalise faces is fictional, the optimism the episode demonstrates mirrors the optimism many still felt about the court at the time. Though the Merrick Garland snub resulting in Neil Gorsuch’s appointment was a harbinger of things to come, Anthony Kennedy and Stephen Breyer had not yet retired and RBG was still alive, making the typical balance of the court 4-4 with a conservative swing instead of our current 6-3 conservative supermajority.

Of course, the Supreme Court has been responsible for all sorts of terrifyingly bad decisions, such as Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857, denying citizenship to African Americans), Plessy v. Ferguson (1896, establishing “separate but equal” segregation), Korematsu v. U.S. (1944, justifying Japanese internment in WWII), Bowers v. Hardwick (1986, upholding sodomy laws), and Citizens United v. FEC (2010, considering corporate political donations free speech). And as a branch of the U.S. government, it is ultimately a tool of furthering colonial rule on Turtle Island instead of justice. But in the face of a perpetually deadlocked legislative branch and volatile executive branch, for queer people the Supreme Court is often our last line of defense to ensure our rights are protected. Considering the recent spate of queer-positive decisions—Lawrence v. Texas (2003), U.S. v. Windsor (2013), Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), Bostock v. Clayton County (2020)—many of us had been lulled into a false sense of security, trusting the Court to protect us when lawmakers couldn’t. We have hope in the Supreme Court because it’s often the only hope left us.

For Nate Lahey Sr., too, the Supreme Court is his only remaining hope. Nate’s estranged father has been in and out of jail since the 80’s, initially for drug crimes, but the lack of an adequate defense and the mental strain of solitary confinement have kept him in the system for decades, especially after he murdered a fellow inmate in his delirium. He had resigned himself to spending the rest of his life in prison, but when Nate Jr. hears about Annalise’s case, he ensures that his father’s file is under consideration for the “face case”. Annalise adds him to the class action, but the Pennsylvania Supreme Court summarily dismisses her without so much as a meeting, making SCOTUS his last chance at freedom. Her victory at SCOTUS allows Sr. to get a new trial and possibly even released; unfortunately, this doesn’t come to fruition, as Sr. is murdered as a political pawn by the Governor the day he was set to be released. But the sting of that reality comes in a later season; the arc of his story in s4 is one of hope.

Going into the trial, there is very little optimism that they will be successful. President Grant refuses to help Annalise not for ideological reasons but political ones: “Don’t get me wrong, I like the case, I just don’t like the Court. You put this case before the current roster of judges, you won’t win.” (Scandal 7x12). She advises Annalise to wait a year for a more amenable Court, but Annalise points out that Nate Sr. doesn’t have that kind of time. Sure, Annalise needs this win personally as soon as possible, but Nate Sr.’s deteriorating mental state in solitary and the dire situation of her other clients in the class action give this case an urgency that the glacial pace of government is notoriously indifferent to. And because SCOTUS has such a low acceptance rate for granting cert, half the battle is convincing them to even hear the case. Much of the Scandal episode deals with QPA and Annalise/Olivia’s attempts to convince the Justices to deny or grant cert, respectively. As often happens in Washington, this comes down not to conviction or ideology but to backroom deals: Justice Spivey is blackmailed over a sealed case involving his son, leading to him pledging not to rule in favour of cert.

However, the tone of these two episodes, in contradistinction to the shows as a whole, is one of hope. Spivey assumes Olivia has come by to blackmail him as well, but she reveals that she has fixed the problem so he can instead vote his conscience. Olivia taking the high road here is an important contrast to the rest of the season, where she has succumbed to the seductive power of being Command of B613, the shadow government responsible for the worst abuses of human rights on and off U.S. soil. This is the beginning of her redemption arc, having left Command the episode previous. It also drives home the point made by both episodes: this case is bigger than any one person involved, it is a moment of history in the making. It is also a moment of wish fulfillment for the writers, who can create a more just America than the Trump-led hellscape from which they’re writing.

The actual verdict is not reached by the end of the HTGAWM episode, instead being revealed in the season finale (4x15), but the hopefulness is still a crucial theme. Justice Strickland is a vocal opponent of Annalise’s case and was being fed information secretly by the pizza man, giving him an advantage. He backs Annalise into a corner, getting her to argue that race is the determining factor in the case, which he uses to dismiss her argument. Annalise, not to be deterred, tasks Michaela with tracking down the dissent from a case in which Strickland himself said that race is always a factor. Not only does this moment illustrate how flawlessly Michaela and Annalise work together, but Annalise’s poise under pressure and resourcefulness allow her to defy the odds and win Nate’s case at the Supreme Court.

We are never afforded the luxury of forgetting that this is a brief oasis of hope in the crapsack world of HTGAWM. We can also never forget that in our reality, the Supreme Court is responsible for its fair share of injustices. But the strange disjuncture I felt on 24 June 2022 between the Court at its imagined best and evident worst reminds me that sometimes the last court of appeals in the search for justice is not SCOTUS but the courts of public opinion, history, and art.