Government’s least-understood “Third Branch” has a
huge impact on our lives—from abortion to affirmative
action, education to the environment, privacy to police
action. So we must put our faith in the ideal chiseled
on its facade:
“Equal Justice Under Law.”
But in recent years the way we select Supreme Court justices has become dangerously politicized, threatening judicial impartiality.
Advise & Dissent is the first documentary to go behind
the lines and into the trenches of the judicial confirmation
wars. The film tracks two opposing lobbyists and two
lions of the Senate through several recent nominations,
each of which inflames passions and provokes surprising
conflicts and shifting alliances.
The award-winning film weaves “you-are-there” scenes
into an unexpectedly suspenseful narrative. Advise
& Dissent subtly but inexorably reveals how honesty
has succumbed to strategy, how politics have come to
trump principle, and how partisanship is overwhelming
judicial independence.
Both timely and timeless, the film lays bare the collision
of politics and justice that is re-shaping America’s future.