With backing from two fifths of all states, Michigan asked the Supreme Court on Monday to decide whether a state can refuse to pay for appeals by indigent defendants who plead guilty. Michigan is the only state with such a law, which was ruled unconstitutional by the lower courts. David Moran, Wayne State law professor, represented two Michigan attorneys who brought the case. When the judge suggested the people who want to appeal their cases should bring the case -- not lawyers -- Moran argued that attorneys should have standing because they cannot appoint themselves to poor people. "You can't just go out and find an indigent you'd like to represent, " Moran said.