The Singing Twins Custody Case

Episode: 3x10 [The Nutcrackers]
Client: George and Ellen Tanner

Case: Ellen Tanner'sTanner's sister, Annette Shaw, had filed a motion to remove the clients' twin daughters, Katey and Lauren, from their parents' custody.
CP&S Representation: Alan Shore
Opposing Counsel: Attorney Juliette Monroe

Presiding: Judge Mike Matsumura
Result: The judge denied Ms. Shaw's motion for removal.
Notes:

• The case had belonged to Edwin Poole, and, according to Shirley Schmidt, it had "slipped through my crack". She assigned the case to Alan, who agreed to take it as long as Shirley promised to wear a bunny suit to the office Christmas party if he won.
• The Tanners were raising their daughters to believe in the tenets of white supremacy, and the girls were travelling performers, singing songs promoting their beliefs.
• Attorney Monroe argued that the white supremacist movement poses a threat to national security and that the girls should be "rescued" from that type of environmnent.
• Despite his personal distaste for the Tanners' views, Alan argued that the girls were healthy, safe, well-fed, and educated (they were being home-schooled), so there was no merit to the petitioners' claims.
• Alan's closing statement: "Benjamin Franklin is often attributed with the quote, 'Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither.' And he certainly knew what he was talking about. He ate lots of red meat and invented the swim fin. When our current president, who by the way has invented nothing, signed the Patriot Act into law in 2001, not a single member of congress could be found who had read the bill all the way through. And yet, they couldn’t wait to hand over our rights. 'Al Queda’s coming, where’s my pen?' Anything to feel safe.

"Like a parent who dangles car keys to distract a child, our government whips out national security to grab our attention whenever they deem it necessary. And that’s what opposing council is doing here, but this case is not about national security. It’s about a family. Granted, a family that is so filled with spite and ignorance and shockingly untutored ideas that it beggars the imagination, but still a family. And as long as Lauren and Katey are well fed and well cared for, a family the law cannot and should not touch.
"Now I think we would all agree that we’d prefer these children to be raised in a different way. Certainly Mrs. Tanner’s sister thinks so. But she knows legally that is not possible, so she and her lawyer are wheeling out our latest favorite rights-squashing mechanism, national security, and who can blame them? It’s all the rage. If you want to look at people’s bank records, tap their phones, read their e-mails, go ahead, do it. Just say it’s a matter of national security.
"And now we’re claiming the Tanner family is a threat. If that is the case, if there is any actual evidence linking them to a crime, by all means, be my guest, please, have at ‘em, arrest them, but if there is no cause to arrest them, then leave this family alone."

(thanks to toxicangel for the transcription)