Deadlock

“Look,” Kessler said, “I’m not going to make any commitments. At the most, I’ll wait and see.”

“You don’t have to wait to see. I’ll tell you how to proceed.”

A thin smile came to Kessler’s face. “You wouldn’t be trying to put the Arnold on me?”

The Arnold was code on the Hill for strong-arming. “Let’s just say the president and I would much appreciate this little act of kindness.” Levering felt like Marlon Brando in The Godfather. It almost made him laugh.

“What if I refuse?” Kessler said.

“You won’t.”

Kessler’s soft cheeks became hot pink. “You think I’m going to sit here and let you – ”

“How’s your wife back in Sioux Falls?” Levering said.

Kessler’s eyes opened a little wider.

“Still in the first stages of Parkinson’s?” Levering asked.

“You slime.” Kessler said it softly, haltingly.

“Your social activities never need to get back to the old hometown,” Sam Levering said. “We’ll be in touch.”

On his way out, Levering dropped a dollar in the barber’s tip tray.

4

Friday’s conference with the justices was like watching a slow, virulent cancer take hold in the body of the Supreme Court. Millie managed to make it through, but strain was clearly seeping into the chamber.

So she was more than grateful when Helen called, inviting her to lunch. She said she would come around with a driver and they’d go out to a secluded place by the Potomac for a picnic. It was the perfect plan.

The car entered the Court garage at one o’clock. It was a large black limo with tinted windows. Helen certainly knew how to do a D.C. power picnic, Millie mused as the driver opened the limo door. For a moment she thought she recognized him from somewhere.

When she got in, she knew. Seated next to Helen was Senator Sam Levering.

“What is this?” Millie asked. The door slammed behind her.

“Millie,” Helen said, “we have to talk.”

Speechless with shock and anger, Millie glared at the senator. The last time she had been in a limousine with him had not exactly been a pleasant experience.

“Madame Chief Justice,” Levering said with a nod.

“Helen, what is going on?” Millie asked.

The limo started up and Millie practically fell back into the seat. Outside the sun was shining. Inside the air was foul and close.

“We need to talk,” Helen said. “Sam – Senator Levering – and I are really concerned about what’s going on.”

Levering folded his ruddy hands across his stomach. “Madame Justice, do you know what Ambrose Bierce once said about politics?”

Millie just looked at the senator, anger rising in her like a flame.

“He said politics is nothing more than the ‘strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.’ A wise man, Bierce.”

“That politics should be without principle?” Millie snapped.

“You miss the point,” Levering said in his smooth, practiced ma

Millie felt the tone switch to mild threat. She was livid. Threaten the Court itself? She would fight to the bitter end to protect the honor of the Court. “Just what is it you are suggesting, Senator?”

“A chance,” Levering said softly.

“A chance for what?”

“To survive.”

“The Court is strong enough to survive,” Millie said, “and so am I.”

The phony congeniality melted off Levering’s face. “Look, Madame Justice, what I’m talking about here – ”

He stopped as Helen put her hand on his leg. “Let me,” she said to the senator. Then to Millie: “What Senator Levering is trying to say, Millie, is a concern I share as well.”

“Why didn’t you come to me first?” Millie asked.

“It’s all bollixed up,” Helen said. “So much has happened. The point isn’t the past, though – it’s the future. Yours and the Court’s.”

Millie felt like screaming at them both to leave the Court alone. “Why don’t you both come out and tell me what you want?”

“I’ll take it,” Levering said firmly. “Many of us in Congress are very uncomfortable about you mixing religion and politics and the law. Very uncomfortable. Especially after a bunch of us went to bat for you. Not only to be CJ, but when you first came up as a nominee. You made certain assurances – ”

“No, Senator,” Millie said. “I never locked myself into a position on any issue.”

“Don’t quibble with me,” Levering said, pointing his finger at her. “You know what I’m talking about. You indicated to me in private, and to the public at large, that you were going to continue your course as it had been in the past. Nobody ever thought you’d go…”

“What, Senator?” Millie said. “Were you going to say crazy?”

“Actually,” Levering said, “I was going to say nuts.”

Millie felt lightning flash inside her head. She wanted out. Now.

“That’s a little harsh, don’t you think?” Helen said to Levering.

“Millie,” the senator said, giving her an I-feel-your-pain kind of look. “No one wants this to be hard on you, or the Court. And no one is denying you the right to think about life, make some personal changes. But you need to step back and look at the big picture. The picture of this country of ours, of the rights and laws that we’ve built up painfully over the last hundred years.”

What was this, his Fourth of July stump speech?

“You are in a position, not only as chief, but as the key vote, to tear down that delicate edifice,” Levering continued. “Wouldn’t you agree that this should be a matter of sober reflection? Of patience? I understand you had a law clerk resign over this.”

How did he know that? The idea of leakage from within the walls of the Court filled Millie with a sickening dread. “That happened,” Millie said. “So?”

“Don’t you see the danger?” Levering said. Helen, looking at Millie, nodded in agreement, as if Millie should see it, too. Levering leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. “You take the angry resignation of one clerk and you expand the reaction over an entire nation. You’ll have civil strife like we haven’t seen in a generation. All because of religious f – ”

Millie thought he was about to say fanaticism.

“ – fervor,” Levering said.

Millie felt all of her muscles tensing, especially her hands, which she opened and closed in front of her.

“We just want to know,” Helen said, “if you’ll think about it, talk to us, talk to me. We can get through this, Millie. We can.”

“Get through it how, Helen?” Millie said.

“We have someone you need to meet,” Helen said. “Trust me.”

Millie felt the last reserves of any sort of trust for Helen nearly canceled out by the presence of Sam Levering. But this was not just about trust, or about one justice. The integrity of the Supreme Court itself was involved. For that, she would stay, if only to figure out how to keep the senator’s creeping tentacles out of the sacred chamber.