With Liberty and Justice

* Author’s Note: This is part of a piece I originally wrote shortly at 9/11. In order to preserve the feeling and mood of that time, I haven’t edited it or updated it to reflect the events that have occurred since.

CHAPTER THREE

Warren sat behind his desk, leaning forward with both elbows resting on his knees. He gave the appearance of being deep in thought about some complex issue involved in one of the case folders spread out across his desk. The depth of his thought, however, extended only to the bottom of the empty coffee mug he held in both of his hands. For once, Monday had proven to be a slow day. The only issues that had been brought to his attention involved cases that he had assigned to his subordinate 2D staff. But after resolving those supervisory matters, Warren had nothing left to consume his thoughts except the replenishment of his caffeine supply.

Just as Warren had stood up to venture into his kitchenette and partake of a freshly brewed pot of coffee, Sara’s head appeared in his doorway. Her face was lit up with a smile that stretched from one ear to the other. Warren’s contemplative frown disappeared. She’s always had one of those great, infectious smiles that brightened the day of anyone she cast it upon, Warren reflected.

“Well, you said you wanted to be the first to know.” Sara beamed as she stepped into the doorway. “I haven’t even called my parents yet to tell them. Warren, I got my first case.”

Warren couldn’t help but smile at her good news. Despite his selfish desire to revenge his bruised and battered ego, he really was genuinely happy for her. “How many times have I told you that promotion was yours? You had nothing to worry about!” Warren stepped around from behind his desk. “Congratulations! You deserved it.”

Sara took a few swaggering steps forward, closing the distance between them. She was standing in front of Warren, less than a feet away, looking him straight in the eye with a knowing glare. “Did you really think I deserved that promotion?” she smirked. “I know that you’ve always believed that I would never be able to match you in the courtroom. Now, you’ll finally get the chance to prove it.”

This challenge was just what Warren had wanted. He knew that, when they finally met as opposing counsels, she would bring her best work – and so would he. And, when he won, there would be no doubt that he was the better attorney.

He couldn’t resist the opportunity to cut down her confidence a notch with some of his tried and true mind games. Warren felt fairly certain that, if he threw the appropriate jabs when her defenses were at their lightest, he would sway Sara’s eagerness to self-doubt. “So, now that you have license to run your own caseload, are you back to trying civil liabilities cases – or are they going to let you play with the big boys in the criminal court?”

Sara set down the folder she had been clutching to her chest down on Warren’s desk. Her fingers tented on the top, her chin held high accenting the triumphant gleam in her eyes. Her confidence was not going to break easily. She knew Warren entirely too well. “The department decided that my talents would be wasted on civil work. I’ve been assigned to criminal prosecution, and my first case is top-notch. National subversion.”

“Treason, huh? That’s a big case for your first time out. Sure you can handle this one by yourself?” Warren asked teasingly. Both he and Sara knew that the case they’d given her was a slam-dunk conviction. They wanted to get her into the game and set her up with a simple case, reliant upon proper admission of evidence and guaranteed to be a win for her record.

Another head peeked in through the door of Warren’s office. The headmaster of the prosecution department, Ron Douglas, was looking for Sara.

“Sara, are you busy? I’m on my way out of the office and need to talk to you for just one minute.” He disappeared back into the hallway. Sara turned to follow behind him.

Warren touched her arm as she turned to go. Sara turned back around to find herself standing only inches away from Warren, closer than she’s allowed herself to be to him in years.

“Sara, one more thing. Can an old friend take you out for a drink after work? You know . . . to celebrate?” Warren was sure his look didn’t convey simple, friendly support. He knew that his hopefulness oozed from his expression, that his eyes belied his true intent.

Sara took a deep breath and looked up into Warren’s eyes. “Sure. I guess there’s no harm in a couple of old friends catching a drink.” She turned to walk out the door into the hall. She stutter stepped and added, over her shoulder, “So long as we’re clear that is all it is.”

In her flustered haste, Sara had left the file for her treason prosecution lying in the center of his desk. Warren knew that he should leave the file alone, that looking at it would violate the boundaries set between the prosecution and the defense division. He sat back down behind his desk and tried to force his attention to his computer monitor. He told himself that Sara would walk in and catch him looking at the file should he even attempt to catch a glimpse. Or, she would see that a document had been filed back in the wrong place or a letter was not in its former place in the file. He told himself all of these things hoping it would keep him from sneaking a glimpse.

The problem was that his competitive edge required him to have the upper hand, especially when it came to Sara. He couldn’t resist not knowing what kind of case the department had given her for her first time out. As Warren reached across the desk to flip open the manila folder cover and sneak a very brief glimpse, he justified to himself that it was an open and shut conviction and that by looking he wouldn’t change the outcome of the case. He couldn’t sway the scales of justice because they were already properly tilted in favor of the prosecution. With the end of his ballpoint pen, he opened the folder and glimpsed inside. The first page of any file was the Intake Sheet. There, the defendant’s name was listed along with the statute they were being prosecuted under and a brief paragraph synopsis summarizing the reams of evidence that followed.

Warren had seen enough treason cases to know how the cases were ideally configured. Usually, reams of damaging evidence were compiled so that, so long as the prosecuting attorney was well-versed in the art of admitting evidence to the Tribunal, the case was easily won. You didn’t even need to be a litigation superstar. Warren knew this case would be a great case for Sara to get her feet wet. But, when he looked at the Intake Sheet, Warren knew something about this case was different. The conduct that the Prosecution alleged constituted treason was not the standard subversive actions. In fact, this case was like none that Warren had ever seen before.

This defendant was charged with the crime of speaking out against the Civil Liberties Laws, arguing that these laws hindered rather than protected our civil liberties. He argued that, historically, civil liberties have been viewed as natural rights belonging to every American citizen, which should not be limited in any unjustifiable way. He “subversive actions” was the spreading of this message throughout the community. They wanted to prosecute him for his use of mass e-mails, public speeches and rallies, and distribution of leaflets in busy public places.

Technically, these activities could constitute a violation of the National Subversion Act, laws put in place to complement the anti-terrorism act of the early twenty-first century. Treason became defined as any act that threatens the stability of the nation’s government; it became punishable by life imprisonment or death.

In fact, it wasn’t the activities that Warren questioned. It was the message. Something in this case struck Warren as contrary to the public good. He found himself reached back into his school days when, in a closed-door conversation, his Constitutional Law professor and personal mentor, Professor Edgar Hammond, had cautioned him against questioning the system too boldly.

The conversation had arisen after a lecture on the separation of powers, checks and balances, and democracy’s place in that checks and balance system. Warren was not one for skipping over the fine print and noticed in the footnotes of the text that accompanied that class’s discussion an interesting statement about the history of the democracy. He was unsure as to whether he should bring such a radical question to his professor’s attention in front of the entire class. Instead, he felt it better to approach him afterwards. Warren was certain that Professor Hammond would have insight on the foundation for this comment – especially considering Professor Hammond had authored the textbook himself.

The conversation that followed had stuck in the back of Warren’s mind since that day, even though he had never shared his thoughts with another person for fear of his own subversive theories. Essentially, the footnote had stated that, though the three branches of the government had a system of checks and balances in which they monitored each other, the real power of the democracy lay in the hands of the citizens. It was the citizens of the democracy who had the power to directly elect their representatives. Even in the high courts, the citizens were indirectly responsible for the election of their officials as they elected those who made the appointments and approvals of those officials. This comment had left Warren with serious doubts as to the effect laws such as the National Subversion Act had upon democracy. In fact, it made the justice system’s application of the National Subversion Act seem hypocritical at best.

According to the courts, the right to debate the laws was to be bestowed only upon the legislators. The right to challenge the laws was bestowed only upon the best and brightest of the first tier defense attorneys. The President had all final veto power. Citizens were not allowed a voice, however. Yes, they could still vote; but, they couldn’t debate their candidate choices and the policies that the candidates stood for. They could not speak to the impropriety of the laws or the imperfections of the legal system. Instead, they could only remain silent as to their thoughts as to the fitness of one candidate over another, debating only in hushed voices behind closed doors.

Warren’s brainstorm began to gain momentum as he outlined what he had read in the footnote, the obvious distinctions that concerned him between the actual functioning of the law today, and the potential problems these distinctions would present going forward into the near future. Professor Hammond sat back in his chair with his fingertips touching each other and meeting at his chin. Only when Warren took a moment to catch his breath did Professor Hammond sit forward and engage in the conversation.

“Warren,” Professor Hammond started slowly, deliberately with a calm, soft voice, “I want you to always remember the things that you’ve said here today and keep them tucked away in the deepest, darkest reaches of your mind. I placed that footnote there for a reason and I’m glad to see that it impacted at least one student at I had hoped it would. You cannot . . . and I repeat cannot . . . have this discussion again. Not out in the open. Not with even your closest of friends or family. Someday, though, you will find that it will be the crux of your most important argument, the one that you will have to stake your professional career and reputation on. Until that day, I ask only for silent patience. It’s too dangerous otherwise.” Professor Hammond rose from his contemplative position and opened the door. “Warren, I know that putting this conversation on hold at this moment is a difficult feat for a young man with as much drive, passion and promise as I see in you. Remember how being stifled feels. Remember for your client. I look forward to seeing great things from you.”

Maybe it was this perverse hypocrisy that had captured Warren’s attention so intensely all those years ago. Maybe it was just his competitive nature getting the better of him in light of Sara’s involvement with the case. Warren didn’t even look at the rest of the evidence in the file before making up his mind. He knew that his next steps would set in motion that chain of events Professor Hammond had mentioned, threatening both his professional career and reputation. But, he knew that for the first time in his career he was truly passionate about his client’s cause, that he cared whether citizens could freely debate issues of law and politics and take the conversation out of the hushed tones and from behind closed doors as he had wanted to back in Professor Hammond’s office. If defending his client meant bringing down an internally flawed system of justice, he knew that it would be his duty to ensure this young man would not be found guilty for questioning authority, no matter what the consequences he might personally suffer.

Without a second of hesitation, Warren picked up his interoffice phone line and dialed the two number extension for Thomas Scallion, the defense division headmaster. “Tom, I have a favor to ask of you. I’m a little light on work, and was wondering if you might let me volunteer to take on this new case I just caught wind of. It’s a National Subversion case. . . . Yes, that’s the one. . . . David Jeffries. . . . Well, I just thought it might be nice to try a different type of case every once in awhile and I’ve got the time. Maybe something that might challenge me. . . . I can’t win every case, now can I? . . . Yes, Tom, I appreciate your help. I’ll pick up the file this afternoon.”

As Warren hung up, his first wave of second thought rushed over him. Not only had he manipulated the docketing system to pit himself against Sara on her very first case, but he had also managed to take on the most unsavory type of defense. And to win it meant proving one hundred years of law wrong.