I reviewed your well thought argument against pro se’s going to the Supreme court and do not for a minute deny any of your statistics are invalid.  I cite many of the same when I have people ask me about going to the Supreme Court.  Nevertheless, I see no harm and also a certain benefit in pro se litigants taking their shot at winning the lottery for several reasons:

1.  Even though they may have a one in ten million shot at getting heard, it is possible for them to strike it rich.  I cite as an example Gideon v. Wainright, that was won by a pro se appellant, whose case you would have said had no chance at winning.  It is now considered by everyone to be one of the top three cases of all time to be heard by the US Supreme Court.

2. It may be considered fun, like playing the lottery.  There is a certain amount of satisfaction of being able to say you fought the bastards all the way to the bitter end. I filed one pro se suit all the way to the US Supreme Court concerning the building of Safeco Field which was a $200 million stadium financed by taxpayers.  They could not build that thing until all appeals had been exhausted. Even though they eventually were able build it, they could not build it until my appeal was dealt with, which took six months longer than the mainstream attorneys, who were compensated with millions in attorney fees. There was a certain amount of satisfaction in knowing that I was the last man standing. I even heard that mine got within one vote of being heard.  I have had a couple of clients who filed, who have the satisfaction of knowing that their opponents had to spend thousands to respond to the petition, because their opponents felt uncomfortable enough about it, that they felt they had to respond in order to keep from losing.

3.  It can be therapeutic.  I had one client  who had been declared mentally insane by at least 4 different courts. He submitted a very well written brief, taking a shot at establishing a civil Gideon for the mentally disabled.  His arguments were treated with respect, and most the defendants felt they had to respond with briefs written by attorneys.  While he lost, he had the satisfaction of knowing that of all his legal actions, this one was the one that was the most well received because it was a case of first impression. His only regret was he couldn’t figure out a way to put his opponents on trial as war criminals before some international tribunal.

4.  Finally, there is simply doing it for the intellectual challenge and to build support for your position.  Sure, you may be tilting windmills but in the process, you circulate your ideas among others.  Who knows, you or someone else might associate with, might win another case somewhere else, because they cut and pasted a thought developed by you.

Don’t think for a minute that you are not doing the same thing when you advocate trying to win support of Donald Trump.  One thing I have learned about the rich, is that they didn’t get rich by being generous.  The only reason Donald Trump is talking about a crooked judge is that he is trying to get off the hook for swindling those students out of $30,000 at Trump University.  He will not contribute a dime to any else’s efforts without making he gets more than he put in.  Good luck on getting him to contribute money to our cause. .

Thanks for your comments!