Appellate Lawyer of the Week: Jonathan Turley
In June, acting on behalf of members of Congress, he sued the Obama administration claiming it had no constitutional basis for its military actions in Libya. Last year, he represented disgraced federal judge G. Thomas Porteous in his Senate impeachment trial.
And last month, in what may be his highest-profile case ever, Turley filed a complaint called Brown v. Herbert, challenging Utah's criminalization of polygamy. He represents Kody Brown and his openly polygamous family, who are featured on the "Sister Wives" reality show on TLC.
The lawsuit may be the realization of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's nightmare, as he expressed it in his dissent in the 2003 case Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down laws against homosexual sodomy. If society could not make a moral judgment against sodomy, Scalia said, then laws against everything from bestiality to bigamy would be open to attack.
Turley relies heavily on the majority opinion in Lawrence in his complaint, and he asserts that the Brown case could be the one that forces the Court – and society – to recognize that discrimination between different kinds of intimate relationships violates the Constitution.
Earlier this week Turley sat down with Supreme Court Insider to discuss the Brown case and his approach to controversial litigation.
More Videos
- Video: Robert Peck, Appellate Lawyer of the Week
August 3, 2011 - Appellate Lawyer of the Week: Collyn Peddie
January 13, 2011 - Appellate Lawyer of the Week: Jonathan Hacker
January 5, 2011 - The odd cross-currents of federal pre-emption
November 15, 2010 - Appellate Lawyer of the Week: Roy Englert Jr.
September 1, 2010 - Courtside: David Frederick on appellate advocacy at the high court
September 1, 2010 - Introducing the Supreme Court Insider
June 2, 2010
Tony Mauro talks to Robert Peck, president of the Center for Constitutional Litigation.
It's been nearly 25 years since the Supreme Court decided a seminal personal jurisdiction case. Houston lawyer Collyn Peddie is working on one of the two cases this term that could fill the void. Peddie discussed the case and arguing at the high court with The National Law Journal's Marcia Coyle.
Jon Hacker is a well-known figure at the high court, and he's now getting his first chance to argue a case before justices in the so-called "Zicam case."
Federal pre-emption, once an eye-glazing and rarely discussed topic, is now front and center on the Supreme Court's business docket — including two cases argued in the just-completed November argument cycle.
Few lawyers — including the nine lawyers who wear robes to work — know the Supreme Court's docket as well as Roy Englert Jr. Englert sat down with Tony Mauro to answer questions about the upcoming high court term.
David Frederick wrote the book on how to argue a case before the Supreme Court. With publication of the second edition of Supreme Court and Appellate Advocacy, Frederick talked with Tony Mauro about the special nature of arguing before the high court.
Supreme Court correspondent Tony Mauro introduces the broad range of features in NLJ's new electronic newsletter, Supreme Court Insider.
