* * *
“Murphy’s concerned about the Chance case,” Michael Fiske said to Sara Evans. They were in her office on the second floor of the Court building. Michael was six-two and handsome, with the graceful proportions of the athlete he once was. Most clerks did a one-year stint at the Supreme Court before moving on to prestigious positions in private practice, public service or academia. Michael was beginning an almost unprecedented third year here as senior clerk to Justice Thomas Murphy, the Court’s legendary liberal.
Michael was the possessor of a truly wondrous mind. His brain was like a money-sorting machine: Data poured into his head and was swiftly sorted and sent to its proper location. He could mentally juggle dozens of complex factual scenarios, testing each to see how it would impact on the others. At the Court he happily labored over cases of national importance, surrounded with mental sabers equal to his own. And Michael had found that, even in the context of rigorous intellectual discourse, there was time and opportunity for something deeper than what the stark words of a law proclaimed. He really didn’t want to leave the Supreme Court. The outside world held no appeal for him.
Sara looked concerned. Last term, Murphy had voted to hear the Chance case. Oral argument was set, and the bench memo was being prepared. Sara was in her mid-twenties, about five-five, slender, but her body possessed subtle curves. Her face was nicely shaped, the eyes wide and blue. Her hair was thick and light brown — it still turned blondish in the summer — and seemed always to carry a fresh, pleasing scent. She was the senior clerk for Justice Elizabeth Knight. “I don’t understand. I thought he was behind us on this. It’s right up his alley. Little person against a big bureaucracy.”
“He’s also a firm believer in upholding precedent.”
“Even if it’s wrong?”
“You’re preaching to the choir, Sara, but I thought I’d pass it along. Knight’s not going to get five votes without him, you know that. Even with him she might fall short.”
“Well, what does he want?”
This was how it went most of the time. The famed clerk network. They hustled and debated and scrounged for votes on behalf of their justices like the most shameless political hucksters. It was beneath the justices to openly lobby for votes, for a particular phrasing in an opinion, or for a specific angle, addition or deletion, but it wasn’t below the clerks. In fact, most of them took great pride in the process. It was akin to an enormous, never-ending gossip column with national interests at stake. In the hands of twenty-five-year-olds at their first real job, no less.
“He doesn’t necessarily disagree with Knight’s position. But if she gets five votes at conference, the opinion will have to be very narrowly drawn. He’s not going to give away the farm. He was in the military in World War II. He holds it in the highest regard. He believes it deserves special consideration. You need to know that when you’re putting together the draft opinion.”
She nodded her head in appreciation. The backgrounds of the justices played more of a role in their decision making than most people would suspect. “Thanks. But first Knight has to get the opinion to write.”
“Of course she will. Ramsey is not voting to overturn Feres and Stanley, you know that. Murphy will probably vote in favor of Chance at the conference. He’s the senior associate, so he gets to assign the opinion. If she gets her five votes at conference, he’ll give Knight her shot. If she delivers the goods — meaning no broad, sweeping language — we’re all okay.”
United States v. Chance was one of the most important cases on the docket for this term. Barbara Chance had been a private in the Army. She had been bullied, harassed and frightened into repeatedly having sexual intercourse with several of her male superiors. The case had gone through the internal channels of the Army with the result that one of the men had been court-martialed and imprisoned. Barbara Chance, however, had not been content with that. After leaving the military, she had sued the Army for damages, claiming that it had allowed this hostile environment to exist for her and other female recruits.