# Arguing before the Supreme Court: does it really matter?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arguing-before-the-supreme-court-does-it-really-matter/421146>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 1, 2007, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arguing-before-the-supreme-court-does-it-really-matter/421146 "2007-10-01T14:08:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arguing-before-the-supreme-court-does-it-really-matter/421146/21 "2007-10-02T20:32:06Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=diggleblop]  
In the movie, “The People vs. Larry Flynt”, Larry’s lawyer did a good amount of arguing his point. In the movie, he even seemed to have the Justices laughing at his antics, naturally, he won and now Americans can make fun of public figures while being protected by the First Amendment.  
[/QUOTE]  
Saw it again recently and was surprised to see the lawyer was played by Ed Norton. I guess that must have been the first film I saw him in.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2007, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arguing-before-the-supreme-court-does-it-really-matter/421146/22 "2007-10-02T23:05:51Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=diggleblop]  
In the movie, “The People vs. Larry Flynt”, Larry’s lawyer did a good amount of arguing his point. In the movie, he even seemed to have the Justices laughing at his antics, naturally, he won and now Americans can make fun of public figures while being protected by the First Amendment.  
[/QUOTE]

If you’re curious, here are the both the transcript and recording actual oral arguments by Issacman (Hustler’s attorney) and Grutman (Falwell’s attorney)

> **[{{meta.pageTitle}}](https://www.oyez.org/cases/1987/86-1278)**
>
> {{meta.description}}

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arguing-before-the-supreme-court-does-it-really-matter/421146.md?page=1)