“Holy shit—isn’t that the guy we saw with the mayor?” Kevin asked Betsy within earshot of us.

“Shut up, Kevin,” Betsy said and slapped his knee. “Just shut up.”

“Did you hear Dell Nelson’s voice?” Matthew asked.

“Order!”

It took another five minutes for order to be restored. A woman sitting a few feet from Dell Nelson had fainted. She came to, saying, “Nine-eleven” over and over again. The relevance of September 11 was not immediately clear to anyone.

“Oh my God, that’s Izzie, Dell’s sister—I recognize her from the Time story!” Matthew whispered as the paramedics hauled her away.

“I apologize, Ms. Northum, for the disruption,” Judge Fleck said, smoothing his new haircut. Ms. Northum seemed to be the only person, aside from Adams and Friedman, who wasn’t remotely phased by the drama. “And we, of course, will let you resume where you left off.”

Something about the public outburst had changed the dynamic on the bench. The judges allowed Ms. Northum to complete her argument largely uninterrupted before introducing David Kang, the attorney general of Pennsylvania to argue for the state.

“Good morning and may it please the court,” he started. I wondered why lawyers never changed the introduction—just for a little variety. Maybe “Greetings” or “Good day.” And what did “may it please the court” mean anyway?

“We’ve certainly gotten an earful today,” Mr. Kang said, giggling nervously. Nobody else did. Laughing at a lawyer’s joke (if bad) during oral arguments was a felony in some states.

“Well then”—he cleared his throat—“we are here today because of judicial deference. Deference that is afforded—”

“What about Drexel v. California?” Judge Friedman didn’t wait long to drop that one.

“Well Judge Free—Friedman”—he fumbled with some papers—“Drexel is a ninth circuit case and thus not binding on this court.”

“I don’t need a lesson in federal courts, Mr. Kang. I am a judge,” Friedman retorted. It was a good thing she cleared that up for the audience. “And to make it easier for you, let’s assume that Drexel was a third circuit case. How could you differentiate it from the case we have before us now?”

“Um, if you look at, um—”

“Oh, please, Judge Friedman,” Linda Adams butted in, “for every Drexel there is another case from another circuit finding that the lawyer did not err. This is an issue of applying facts to the law. We are not bound by Drexel and therefore it is a nonissue.”

Mr. Kang breathed a sigh of relief.