Supreme Court justices do resign.
An ethical breach forced Abe Fortas to step down. Sandra Day O’Connor retired to take care of her ailing husband. David Souter quit because he apparently hated Washington.
But it’s hard to think of a judge who left the highest court in the land because he disagreed with his own opinions.
“Outlaw,” on NBC, offers just that flamboyant premise: Jimmy Smits plays Justice Cyrus Garza, a conservative who decides — after a brush with a comely representative of the American Civil Liberties Union — that he was wrong about capital punishment and other issues. He quits the court to become a crusading defense lawyer who specializes in lost causes. It’s not as bad as it sounds. He also has a gambling problem.
In short, “Outlaw” starts out with an assortment of showy what-ifs meant to buff the veneer of a conventional courtroom drama.
That may be because it’s not easy for a stand-up lawyer to stand out these days. After 20 years and multiple spinoffs, “Law & Order” lives on this season in “Law & Order: Los Angeles.” Last season “The Good Wife” was a huge hit on CBS, popular enough to inspire other variations on the Perry Mason template. CBS has added another, “The Defenders,” with Jim Belushi and Jerry O’Connell as unorthodox defense lawyers in Las Vegas — a buddy act with broads and legal briefs.
ABC is introducing “The Whole Truth,” a Jerry Bruckheimer drama with Rob Morrow and Maura Tierney that examines each case from the alternating perspectives of the defense lawyer and the prosecutor. The truth of the crime is revealed to viewers in the final scene, after the case has been decided.
And NBC has pinned its hopes on a disrobed Supreme Court justice. The Honorable Cyrus Garza doesn’t live up to his honorific: he’s both a skirt-chasing gambler (“Bless me, Father, for I need a four,” he jokes to a blackjack dealer) and a strict constructionist with an uneasy conscience.
Mr. Smits, who played a louche assistant district attorney on “Dexter” and a presidential candidate on “The West Wing,” looks at ease in the role of a cocky conservative who counts cards but not his many conquests. Yet the pilot on Wednesday is crammed with exposition and feels a little forced.
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