Judge Steven Hardin (Michael Douglas) is an idealistic Los Angeles judge who becomes frustrated when the technicalities of the law prevent the prosecution of three criminals. The first is a man who was charged with murdering several elderly women for their welfare money. The second and third are two men who were accused of raping and killing an eight-year-old boy as part of a suspected child pornography ring. The suspected child murderers attracted the attention of two police officers when they were driving slowly late at night. The police officers suspected that the van's occupants might be burglars. After checking the license plate for violations, the officers pulled the van over for expired paperwork. They also claimed to have smelled marijuana, and then saw a bloody shoe inside the van. However, the reason for stopping the van turned out to be spurious: the paperwork was actually submitted on time (it was merely processed late). Since the traffic stop was illegal, based on the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine Hardin has no choice but to exclude any evidence discovered as a result of the traffic stop, including the bloody shoe. Hardin becomes even more distraught when the father of the murdered boy attempts to shoot the criminals in court, but misses and shoots one of the arresting officers instead. After another boy is discovered raped and murdered, the father of the original boy tells Harding "This one is on you, your Honor. That boy would be alive if you hadn't let those men go." The father then commits suicide while in jail. Judge Hardin learns from his friend, Judge Caulfield (Hal Holbrook), of the existence of a modern-day Star Chamber. This is a group of judges that identifies criminals who cannot be brought to justice through the judicial system, and takes action against them using a hired assassin. Judge Hardin participates in one of the Star Chamber proceedings, and the assassin is dispatched to kill two other unrelated murderers who were release