May It Please the Court

May It Please the Court

a solo exhibit by Xavier Cortada
in the rotunda of the Florida Supreme Court
Tallahassee, FL
Opening reception: March 1st at 3 p.m.
Exhibit runs through July 15, 2004.
Presented by the Florida Supreme Court, Arts in the Court Committee

see article | see “Painting Constitutional Law” (2021)

Virtual Exhibit: The Rotunda

Xavier Cortada painted this series for “May It Please the Court,” a solo exhibit in the rotunda of the Supreme Court of Florida. The paintings portray landmark US Supreme Court cases originating in Florida, the artist’s home state. The paintings, which remained at the Supreme Court through 2009, are now on long term loan to Florida International University College of Law.

Gideon v. Wainwright
48″ x 36″
oil on canvas, 2004
on long term loan to the Florida Supreme Court

Palmore v. Sidoti
48″ x 36″
acrylic on canvas, 2004
on long term loan to the Florida Supreme Court

The Miami Herald Publishing Company v. Tornillo
48″ x 36″
oil on canvas, 2004
on long term loan to the Florida Supreme Court

Gideon v. Wainwright
48″ x 36″
oil on canvas, 2004
on long term loan to the Florida Supreme Court

Seminole Tribe v. Florida
48″ x 36″
acrylic on canvas, 2004
on long term loan to the Florida Supreme Court

Williams v. Florida
48″ x 36″
acrylic on canvas, 2004
on long term loan to the Florida Supreme Court

Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye
v. City of Hialeah
48″ x 36″
acrylic on canvas, 2004
on long term loan to the Florida Supreme Court

All are equal (1),
but some are more equal than others (2)
48″ x 144″, mixed media on canvas, 2002

(1). Dade County Human Rights Ordinance is enacted, January 18, 1977.
(2). Dade County Human Rights Ordinance is repealed, June 7, 1977.

Virtual Exhibit:  Entrance to Chambers

Xavier Cortada (with youth at TGK adult jail)
convictim, 60″ x 144″, mixed media on canvas, 2001.

(On loan from of the Law Offices of Bennett Brummer, Public Defender)

Virtual Exhibit:  Judicial Meeting Room

Xavier Cortada (with youth at Citrus residential program),
Trapped
48″ x 60″, mixed media on canvas, 2002

(On loan from the Children and Youth Law Clinic of the University of Miami School of Law)

Xavier Cortada (with youth at the Jackson Memorial Hospital SIPP residential program),
The Voice Project 2003 Mural
48″ x 60″, mixed media on canvas, 2003

(On loan from the Children and Youth Law Clinic of the University of Miami School of Law)

Florida Supreme Court Justices Barbara J. Pariente and Raoul G. Cantero, III talk with Xavier Cortada in front of the artist’s Proffitt v. Florida painting during the March 1, 2004 opening reception of the “May It Please the Court” exhibit in the rotunda of the Supreme Court, Tallahassee, Florida.

Florida Supreme Court Justice Peggy A. Quince listens to Xavier Cortada as he describes his All are equal1, but some are more equal than others2 mural during the March 1, 2004 opening reception of the “May It Please the Court” exhibit in the rotunda of the Supreme Court, Tallahassee, Florida.

cortada-podiumOn January 16th, 2010, Xavier Cortada joined Dean Acosta and President Rosenberg in presenting his May it Please the Court exhibit at FIU.

GIDEON V. WAINWRIGHT
372 U.S. 335 (1963)
If an obscure Florida convict named Clarence
Earl Gideon had not sat down in prison with a
pencil and paper to write a letter to the Supreme
Court; if the Supreme Court had not taken the
trouble to look at the merits in that one crude
petition among all the bundles of mail it must
receive everyday, the vast machinery of
American law would have gone on functioning
undisturbed. But Gideon did write that letter;
the court did look into his case; and he was re-
tried with the help of competent defense
counsel; found not guilty and released from
prison after two years of punishment for a crime
he did not commit. And the whole course of
legal history has been changed.
 
(Kennedy, 1963)
In researching Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963), I found that Bobby Kennedy quote and instantly came up with my composition about the landmark case on "the right to an attorney.”  Instead of focusing on what Gideon was unable to do in the courtroom without an attorney ("lawyers in criminal courts are necessities, not luxuries"), I focused on what he did accomplish after he was sentenced. 
 
Gideon could have literally done what his cell mate is doing in my painting, just sitting back and rotting away in jail. He could have used that paper as toilet paper. Instead, what Gideon decided to do is act. Because Gideon decided to write from his cell, others were guaranteed a right to counsel before being sent to theirs.
 
Even in the most isolated, remote place, he said, ‘I am going to challenge.’ For someone who is marginalized to that level: no money, no nothing, no power;  a  roamer, a drifter now sitting in jail. And you can single-handedly change the course of history.  
 
I think it speaks volumes for what we as individuals in a society can do.  
 
Xavier Cortada