First Monday in October 1981

The death of Stanley Moorehead, an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, opens a vacancy on the high court. The President’s appointee, Ruth Loomis, a staunch conservative from Orange County, California, is confirmed as the first female Associate Justice, marking a historic turn for the court. Her arrival instantly signals a clash of temperament and philosophy with the old guard, especially with the court’s liberal veteran, Daniel Snow. The two judges could not be more different in outlook: Loomis brings a disciplined, courtroom pragmatism and a conservative tilt, while Snow embodies a long‑standing, more expansive view of liberty and judicial power. Their early exchanges lay bare a fundamental tension on the bench—how to balance precedent, tradition, and personal beliefs when interpreting the Constitution.

A pair of high-profile cases tests their ability to navigate ideology and responsibility. One dispute centers on a pornographic film and the delicate boundaries of free speech, forcing them to weigh civil liberties against public decency in a culture war that has real consequences for creators, viewers, and the broader moral debate. A second matter arrives from below: a lawsuit brought by stockholders of a company concerned with suppressing a potentially revolutionary new power source, the momentum engine. The patent is controlled by the board of Omnitech International, and its chief executive, Donald Richards, has not appeared in public for a decade and remains unavailable by subpoena. The legal questions surrounding this case push Loomis and Snow into the heart of corporate power, technological promise, and the public’s right to know how inventions are safeguarded or stifled.

As time passes, the two jurists grow to like and respect one another despite their differences. They find themselves drawn into late-evening debates about the momentum engine and the Omnitech controversy, held after hours in the quiet, almost sacred space of the empty courthouse. During one such moment, Snow endures a heart episode and is hospitalized, prompting Loomis to visit and comfort him as he recovers. That moment softens their initial wariness and reveals a shared concern for the integrity of the law and the people it serves.

The plot intensifies when Loomis, spurred by something Snow had intimated during their debates, travels back to California overnight. In a records storage center, she uncovers evidence suggesting that her late husband and his law firm concealed the death of their client, Donald Richards. This discovery creates a serious conflict of interest for Loomis, given her prior associations with the same firm that defended her, and she contemplates resigning from the Supreme Court to avoid tainting the Omnitech case. Snow learns of Loomis’s dilemma, leaves the hospital, and, after further debate, persuades her not to quit her position. The pair then return to the Supreme Court by taxi to reveal her discovery and to advocate for timely action on the Omnitech case. They push for the next conference to place the matter on the docket, a move that could reshape the trajectory of the high court’s review and test the limits of judicial ethics, accountability, and pragmatism in a fraught moment of constitutional consequence.

Together, the narrative unfolds as a measured exploration of how two minds with divergent philosophies can find common ground in the service of justice, even as political and personal pressures threaten to pull them apart.