Breaking News
ON DATE night one week later, Cole was at his usual table at the usual time awaiting his next date. As a man who was normally in charge, in control, in the know, not knowing who was going to be dining with him until that person walked in was very irritating.
That particular week, his date arrived close to on time. The man was, on the surface, very nice. He was intelligent, well-read, well-informed about current events—and he was a hunk. Cole found himself relaxing and enjoying their conversation. They each sipped a glass of wine and focused their attention on the other.
And then it happened. Out of the corner of his eye, Cole caught two words on the television screen that made his heart seemingly skip a beat: “Breaking News.” He was out of his seat in a flash and raced to the bar, ordering the bartender, “Turn it up! Turn it up!”
“We interrupt this broadcast with breaking news out of Washington, DC. We have just learned that Supreme Court Justice Jacobsen, the oldest member of the current court, has died. I repeat, we have just learned of the death of the oldest member of the United States Supreme Court. This news is just coming in, so we do not have additional details about when, where, or how. We are working to collect that information and will return to you as soon as information warrants. We now return you to your regularly scheduled broadcast.”
Cole’s phone was out of his pocket and at his ear with Sarah’s number speed dialed.
“You hear?” he asked, dispensing with pleasantries.
“Jacobsen. Dead.”
“Just saw it on a Special Report. You home? How quick can you be back at the office? Get everybody. Get them back. I want everybody. I want to go on the air with something fast. I’m leaving now.”
Without a second thought, Reporter Cole was on stage and in charge. Without a glance back, his date forgotten, Cole exited the restaurant. His date was finished for that night.
Eight minutes after he ran out of the restaurant, Cole was on the grounds of the White House and in position to go on the air. As he had run from the restaurant, he had been composing his first on-air report in his mind.
Catching his breath, he closed his eyes, took a breath, held it, focused his attention, steeled himself, and nodded at the cameraman. The lights came on, the camera whirred on, the man looked at Cole and said, “We’re live in three, two, one….” And then he pointed his finger at Cole, indicating they were live.
“This is Coleman Young coming to you from the grounds of the White House, where word of the death of Supreme Court Associate Justice Lawrence Jacobsen has been received earlier this evening. Justice Jacobsen was not the longest-serving member of the court but did have the distinction of being the oldest member of the current court.
“While it is too soon to know all of the details surrounding his death, here’s what we do know. Justice Jacobsen was eighty-six years old.” Someone scribbled a date on a pad and held it up for Cole to see. He wanted to smile because someone had read his mind and gotten him a fact he needed but didn’t have readily at hand. “He was appointed to the court in 1987, already older than most of his colleagues.
“The death or resignation or retirement of a Supreme Court Justice is a fairly rare event. There are only nine members of the nation’s highest court, nine people who are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Those who make it to the court have a lifetime appointment. It is viewed by many to be the single most important power of the president to appoint someone to the United States Supreme Court.
“Since the beginning of our nation, the makeup of the Supreme Court has been incredibly important. While the court has sometimes swung more to the right and sometimes more to the left, there have been many, many years in which the court has been nearly evenly split between conservatives and liberals. With four solid conservatives and four solid liberals, Justice Jacobsen held that all-important position between the two extremes. His vote frequently decided the outcome of cases before our nation’s highest court. Court watchers were never entirely sure how a decision would come down because it was nearly impossible to predict how Justice Jacobsen would see the case.
“So here’s what’s going to be happening in Washington, DC, in the days and weeks ahead. There is rarely a public funeral for a deceased member of the Supreme Court. While the lives of the justices touch many people, they are known personally by very few.
“It is now time for the president and his advisors to dust off what surely already exists: their short list of potential candidates for appointment to the United States Supreme Court. The lights will burn well into the night in many offices tonight as names are reviewed, discussed, debated. Usually the list will be relatively short.
“Some presidents have told me they had as many as eighteen names on their list of potential appointees, but it is more common to find a much shorter list, perhaps only six or seven names. To some degree, the background of those six or seven people has already been roughly reviewed. In the days ahead, members of the president’s administration will be working around the clock to find everything they can about the names on the president’s short list.
“Before a name is sent to the Senate for consideration, the president and his advisors will need to know everything about the candidate. They will review every decision he or she has rendered if they have served on a court. They will want to know every word the person has ever spoken in a speech before any group. They will need to find out every organization to which the candidate belongs, every stand they’ve ever taken. In other words, the president and his advisors will want to know—will need to know—everything about the person before making a public decision about who the president wants to serve on the Supreme Court.
“Since the power of appointment to the court is one of the most lasting powers of any president, it is more likely than not that the person the president selects will be a relatively young man or woman, a person with many decades of potential service on the court. It is not at all uncommon for men and women appointed to the court to serve for multiple decades. I can recall justices who have served for between thirty and forty years on the court.
“The power of this one appointment has the potential to directly impact more of American life than just about any other single decision. The power of this one appointment has more impact than any single election or any single candidate or political party in power. The power of this one appointment will potentially move the court from one that is evenly divided between liberals and conservatives solidly into one camp or the other.
“President Abernathy has been in the White House for less than one year. This will be his first major judicial appointment. Some presidents serve their entire four- or eight-year terms without the opportunity to appoint anyone to the Supreme Court. However, President Carter was the only president in recent memory not to get to make at least one appointment to the court.
“Given the age of the current court, there is the potential for this to be the first of perhaps a few appointments President Abernathy will make in his term in the White House. The president has before him the potential to do what few other presidents have during their time in office: he potentially has the power to change the course of the Supreme Court for generations to come.
“With the president’s party in control of the Senate, it is likely that anyone he selects will be approved. But of course, one constant in politics is that there is never a sure thing until it is done.
“This is Coleman Young at the White House saying good night for now. As we have more information, we will return to you throughout the evening. Good night.”
“And we’re clear.”
“How did that sound?” Cole asked the group in general as opposed to any one particular person.
“Sensational, darlin’,” he heard his producer pronounce. “You sure can string a line of bullshit better than anyone I know.”
“Hey! I’ll have you know there was no bullshit in what I said. It was all factual. It was all historic. It was all real.”
“I know. But you were stringing it along to beat the band. Well done.”
“Thank you. Now let’s get inside and get to work.”
Over the hours ahead, Cole and his colleagues called every contact they had to try to get any hint of who was on this president’s short list of candidates. When no one in the media was able to pry information out of any White House source, the members of the media began to conjecture about who might be on the list. In other words, in the absence of facts to report, the members of the media started to discuss possibilities—possibilities that might have no chance of happening, but possibilities for the purpose of discussion on the air at least.