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“Yours is to nominate someone who doesn’t alienate people.”
President Bartlett listened as Judge Christopher Mulready summarized the case he had been hearing all along from the vast majority of his advisers. With two exceptions.
He’s right, and how often have I said that about him? Try never. Except he thinks the key word in his statement is “alienate”, and not “someone”. Singular.
This could work. It’s certainly a chance to make a mark on history. I’d be lying to myself if I said that wasn’t tempting. But the fact is I am impressed by this guy despite the fact that I really didn’t want to be.
“You don’t know what this is all about, do you?”
“No sir, not at all.”
I believe him.
“Then you’ve convinced me of something, as unlikely as that sounds. Without even knowing what. Perhaps you should have gone into politics.”
“I’m too blunt for that.”
Well that’s true.
“Chief Justice Ashland has not been well.”
“I know. I had dinner with him a couple of months ago.”
“Really?”
“Yes, he gets some of his former clerks together from time.”
“You clerked for him?”
“Yes, his final year at the Ninth Circuit. It was a mistake, actually. My distant cousin Carl was a classmate at Stanford, and had been active in liberal causes. He meant to hire him.”
“He’s known for hiring conservatives to argue with actually.”
“I started that trend. I almost got fired several times early on. Eventually he started seeking me out when he was feeling argumentative. Then while preparing for a close case. He was appointed to the Court as I was about to complete my clerkship and he told me that he was going to make his error a tradition.”
The President continued. “A few months ago, we asked him to consider resigning. He refused, rather bluntly, as he didn’t believe anyone worthy of his seat could get past the Senate.”
“Oh, he would do that. It’s a shame. The workload can’t be helping his health. Mrs. Ashland had to help him a couple times at dinner, and it’s taking a toll on her, too. He’s right, of course. From his perspective.”
Quite. If I wasn’t fully convinced, I am now.
“Josh Lyman and Toby Ziegler were extremely impressed with Evelyn Baker Lang. They want her on the Court. Josh asked Justice Ashland if he would resign to be replaced by her, if the Senate Republicans could pick Justice Brady’s replacement.
He agreed, and they chose you.
So I can’t appoint Judge Lang, and a Republican couldn’t appoint you.
But I can appoint you both.”
Chief Justice (soon to be Emeritus) Roy Ashland was having one of his good days. Odd, because this had come from one of his “not so good” days.
The day Toby Ziegler and Josh Lyman approached him with their offer, he had been tired. Feeling his years. They offered him an out, and out of exhaustion he accepted.
Then he started to consider his own proposition: “Let’s see who they pick.”
Some of the possibilities completely terrified him. Baughmann from the 11th District. Talliaferro from the 5th. Young, combative, and extremely conservative. Talliaferro had all but said that he felt Biblical law was at least as important as the Constitution. Baughmann was extremely literal on the Tenth Amendment, not to mention the Second. If only he respected the First as much, and recognized what those monuments he had the taxpayers buy him implied. Thou shalt have no other Gods before me??!!!
No, he had not been thinking straight. Judge Lang would make a fine and Historic replacement. But at such a cost! He would have to back out.
Then inspiration struck. He remembered how he ended up hiring his traditional “fascist” clerks, Karen Black being the latest. A young man who infuriated him at first. Always polite and unflappable, but obstinate in his dedication to principles Roy Ashland considered outdated.
But principled. Very principled. Always prepared with facts, and always coming back to the written law of the land. Even if he didn’t always like where it led him.
Chris Mulready could always at least see the other side and see that it was not inherently evil.
And Hannah adored him, and his wife was the best judge of character he knew.
Justice Ashland buzzed his secretary. “Get Lisa Wolfe on the phone, please.”