29. Lisa Gochman: Arguing Before The United States Supreme Court

Lisa Sarnoff Gochman captures the terror, wonder, and joy of preparing for and arguing a landmark criminal case before the nine justices of the Supreme Court of the United States in Washington, D.C.

At the Altar of the Appellate Gods traces the arc of a violent, racially-motivated hate crime by a white supremacist in rural Vineland, New Jersey, through the New Jersey state court system, and all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court where Gochman defended the constitutionality of New Jersey’s Hate Crime Statute before a very hot bench. Gochman went head-to-head with Justice Antonin Scalia, fielded tough questions from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and strolled down memory lane with Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.