Law & Order (TV Series)

Chosen (2003)

Sam Waterston: Executive ADA Jack McCoy

Quotes 

• Jack McCoy : Do you consider yourself a gambler, Mr. Nathan?

  Arnold Nathan : I put a couple of dollars into the Super Bowl pool at the office.

  Jack McCoy : That's it?

  Arnold Nathan : I was in Las Vegas once. Won a couple of dollars on the slots.

  Jack McCoy : Do you know any chronic gamblers?

  Arnold Nathan : Well, my brother. His wife left him because he played the ponies a little more than she liked.

  Jack McCoy : Is there any reason you couldn't give out the maximum sentence in this case?

  Arnold Nathan : No, not at all.

  Jack McCoy : Thank you, Mr. Nathan.

  [to judge] 

  Jack McCoy : He's fine.

  Randolph J. 'Randy' Dworkin, Esq. : That's a nice tie, Mr. Nathan. Where did you get it?

  Arnold Nathan : Barney's.

  Randolph J. 'Randy' Dworkin, Esq. : Cost you an arm and a leg I bet.

  Arnold Nathan : Maybe just an arm.

  Randolph J. 'Randy' Dworkin, Esq. : I love this guy.

• Jack McCoy : Mr. Dworkin is a first-rate attorney. Hell, he's a magician. He put the facts into a box, sawed the box in half, and out popped thousands of years of the most despicable hatred known to man. Like any good magician, he kept you busy with what he was saying, hoping you wouldn't notice what he was doing with his hands; hoping you wouldn't catch him trying to hide a corpse, trying to make a murdered man disappear. I'm betting you saw through the trick. So the only question is will you pretend it worked, or will you make this illusion disappear? One bookie killed another bookie; that's it. Period. The defense hardly bothers to say otherwise. Mr. Dworkin just now all but said his client killed Mr. Meeks. Not once did he claim Mr. Strelzik was innocent. Like I say, he's a good attorney. He knows no one would believe him. Instead he had the deeply offensive idea to use your sympathy for Israel to put a killer back on the street. Mr. Dworkin wants you to choose culture over citizenship. Visceral hatred over codified laws; he's counting on at least one of you saying to himself "I'm a Jew first, and only after that an American." I asked you back when you were selected for this job whether you could look at the facts presented without passion or prejudice, and each one of you swore under oath that you could. I know it's hard, but if you don't, all of this is meaningless.

• Jack McCoy : I know, I know...

  Arthur Branch : My first appellate case. Judge Kornbeck asked me to define strict scrutiny as it pertains to substantive due process.

  Jack McCoy : With all due respect, any first-year law student could do that.

  Arthur Branch : Well, perhaps, but there I was confronted with the majesty of the Court of Appeals. Nine gods in black robes looking down at me. And I froze. And he repeated the question. "Counselor, what do you mean by strict scrutiny?" So finally I looked him straight in the eye and I said, "Well, your honor, it's like regular scrutiny, but with a girdle."

  Jack McCoy : Too bad Judge Kornbeck was born without a sense of humor.

  Arthur Branch : On the contrary, he busted up. And so did his eight brethren. And you know what? I won that case. Opposing counsel had 100 years of precedent, but I made the judge laugh.

  Jack McCoy : And we have...

  Arthur Branch : And if they like this guy more than they like you, there's a good chance we could be sucking wind.

• Serena Southerlyn : My point is, is that Mr. Strelzik's little black book might embarrass a lot of influential people.

  Arthur Branch : Did he kill Gordon Meeks?

  Jack McCoy : We think he did.

  Arthur Branch : Does anyone in this room have his or her name in that little book of his?

  Jack McCoy : Of course not.

  Arthur Branch : Then convict the S.O.B.