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There Is No Higher Court
- 99 statements
- 17 feature instances
- 21 referencing feature instances
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| There Is No Higher Court | comment |
Sometimes, a law or an action by the authorities is plainly unconstitutional. In the real world, that is solved by an appeal to a higher court to overturn an unconstitutional law or undo a wrongful application thereof. Which does not happen in fiction in general and in films in particular. An old law that has a witch burned is applied independently of the obvious constitutional issues, ditto one that forbids dancing, and so on, and so forth. Of course, the power of plot compels it. See also Fiction Is Not Fair. Supertrope to Ultimate Authority Mayor. |
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| There Is No Higher Court / int_17d59b39 | type |
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| There Is No Higher Court / int_17d59b39 | comment |
Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney takes this in a horrifying direction. Instead of regular criminal cases, Phoenix is involved with actual witch trials. Since witches are considered incredibly dangerous by the people of Labyrinthia, the penalty for being proven as one is to be lowered into a fiery pit to one's death. Even if the defendant wasn't killed upon receiving a Guilty verdict though, Labyrinthia's Medieval Stasis world likely wouldn't have a concept of appeals. | |
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| There Is No Higher Court / int_261c8d3f | type |
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The Simpsons: The mayor at one point discovers that the city of Springfield actually has an old and unenforced law banning the sale of alcohol. Therein, anyone convicted of possessing alcohol in Springfield was to be punished "by catapult" as in being flung into the next county with one. Then it turns out that the 200-year-old law was repealed 199 years ago anyway. The old man who discovered the law suddenly realized there were more words on the parchment. Judge Snyder has unilaterally banned multiple things from Springfield (such as sugar) and his authority in the matter is never questioned, nor does anyone ever seem to think about just driving their car over to Shelbyville where the judge's far-reaching authority stops. Judge Snyder also has the legal authority to give an outsider the name, job title and mother of a citizen of Springfield, he has the power to expel said citizen from the city, and the power to have anyone who brings up the changes tortured. |
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| There Is No Higher Court / int_3b3004b6 | type |
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| There Is No Higher Court / int_3b3004b6 | comment |
Footloose: A local law bans dancing and rock music, despite being an extremely blatant violation of the First Amendment. It's based on a real place that really did have a law against dancing until 1980, so this might fall under Reality Is Unrealistic. | |
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| There Is No Higher Court / int_3fbd173e | type |
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| There Is No Higher Court / int_3fbd173e | comment |
After the collapse of his idiotic plan to enact genocide on Jean's sentient robots and being dragged to court, Freefall's Mr. Kornada instructs his robot assistant to press for a retrial in case he's found guilty, hoping to tie up the legal system into declaring him innocent. However, Blunt points out that, simply, Jean's not big enough for this strategy to work - there's only one judge aside from the authority elected to preside over his trial (the Mayor) - and said judge is foaming at the mouth at Mr. Kornada, automatically making the Mayor's court Mr. Kornada's best option. | |
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| There Is No Higher Court / int_4e8d4061 | type |
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| There Is No Higher Court / int_4e8d4061 | comment |
Doc Hollywood. Most judges don't judge their own cases. | |
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| There Is No Higher Court / int_78d932ca | type |
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| There Is No Higher Court / int_78d932ca | comment |
Ernest Goes to Jail. There is actually mention of a higher court - but it's refused to hear Felix Nash's case, meaning that Ernest P. Worrell (who has been switched with Nash in jail) is going to the chair. | |
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| There Is No Higher Court / int_7c25402 | type |
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| There Is No Higher Court / int_7c25402 | comment |
The School for Good Mothers: A judge ruled that Frida must have her parental rights terminated. Also Frida cannot have any contact with Harriet until she turns 18 and only if Harriet seeks Frida out. What's worse, it is an unappealable decision. | |
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| There Is No Higher Court / int_9dfa8216 | type |
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| There Is No Higher Court / int_9dfa8216 | comment |
Thoroughly averted in the Law & Order franchise, where appeals to higher courts are a frequent part of the "Law" half of each show. | |
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| There Is No Higher Court / int_ba2dcaa6 | type |
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| There Is No Higher Court / int_ba2dcaa6 | comment |
Averted in Hatfields & McCoys after the McCoys start paying bounty hunters to kidnap Hatfields in West Virginia and bring them to Kentucky to stand trial. The legality of this is quickly challenged by West Virginia and the case is appealed all the way to the US Supreme Court. The Court seemingly rules in favor of the Hatfields but allows for Loophole Abuse where they are released and then immediately rearrested. After the trial that ended the feud, "Wall" Hatfield, a lawyer and a judge, plans to appeal his sentence but dies in prison before the appeal process gets anywhere. | |
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| There Is No Higher Court / int_c43df4d8 | type |
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| There Is No Higher Court / int_c43df4d8 | comment |
Doctor Who: "I am The Doctor. If you don't like it, if you want to take it to a higher authority, there isn't one. It stops with me." | |
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| Doctor Who | hasFeature |
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| There Is No Higher Court / int_cac20f89 | type |
There Is No Higher Court | |
| There Is No Higher Court / int_cac20f89 | comment |
Also averted in JAG where both Harm & Mac argue before the US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, and Chegwidden once prepared to argue before the U.S. Supreme Court. Played straight in the episode "Tribunal" where the fictional Number 3 in Al-Qaeda is sentenced to death by a military commission. | |
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| There Is No Higher Court / int_d4fe0006 | type |
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| There Is No Higher Court / int_d4fe0006 | comment |
In Ed, a judge would decide the punishment of people before him with a Wheel-of-Fortune-style implement. He seemed to have been doing that for a while before the protagonist discussed it with him.... | |
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| Ed | hasFeature |
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| There Is No Higher Court / int_d5cbebba | type |
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| There Is No Higher Court / int_d5cbebba | comment |
Also averted, somewhat, in The Chamber (the book, not the movie), when the lawyer Adam ultimately comes up with 4 legal challenges to the death penalty and files them in Mississippi Supreme Court, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, and the US Supreme Court. In some cases, the Mississippi Supreme Court is the one that shoots down the challenges, and in others, it's the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The US Supreme Court consistently refuses to hear the case (they only take a small number of those filed). | |
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| There Is No Higher Court / int_d68480c7 | type |
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| There Is No Higher Court / int_d68480c7 | comment |
Amistad, based on a true story, averts this with the case being appealed to the Supreme Court and the lawyers have to explain to Cinque why their case has to be argued again after they just won their freedom in court. For his part, Cinque is both outraged and bewildered at this alien legal concept. | |
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| There Is No Higher Court / int_dab7c96c | type |
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Pleasantville. The anti-color laws violate the First Amendment and the authorities refuse to give the hero a lawyer when he requests one on the grounds that they want things to remain pleasant. | |
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| Pleasantville | hasFeature |
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| There Is No Higher Court / int_e293455a | type |
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| There Is No Higher Court / int_e293455a | comment |
Double Subverted in Buffy the Vampire Slayer: When Principal Snyder, out of sheer hatred for Buffy Summers, exploits her being framed for murder to expel her from high school and refuses to reinstate her after being cleared and remains adamant in his decision even as Giles threatens to take this as high as the California State Court. Which leads to Giles threatening to brutalize him. That does the trick. | |
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| There Is No Higher Court / int_e5feb1e | type |
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| There Is No Higher Court / int_e5feb1e | comment |
In Ace Attorney, the trials you take part in are essentially hearings, supposedly to determine whether the defendant is guilty enough for a real trial—a "guilty" verdict just means they get taken off screen and tried for real. They're usually not treated as anything less than "Get Off Scott Free vs. Death Penalty". Since the Ace Attorney games are Japanese, and therefore based on the Japanese system rather than American, they apparently take a lot of actual influence from that system. There is ultimately a higher court, but the 3-day-max "hearings" usually end up being the final word: if the defendant is found guilty in the preliminary hearing, then their chances of being acquitted in the trial are essentially non-existent. The trial itself is usually for sentencing, rather than determination of guilt. If your lawyer can't prove you innocent in the hearing, then the evidence is obviously overwhelmingly against you. Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney takes this in a horrifying direction. Instead of regular criminal cases, Phoenix is involved with actual witch trials. Since witches are considered incredibly dangerous by the people of Labyrinthia, the penalty for being proven as one is to be lowered into a fiery pit to one's death. Even if the defendant wasn't killed upon receiving a Guilty verdict though, Labyrinthia's Medieval Stasis world likely wouldn't have a concept of appeals. |
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