The Pelican Brief

Abraham Rosenberg is a 91-year-old man in a wheelchair and “the only legend” (3) on the United States Supreme Court. He watches a crowd of demonstrators through a window as he prepares for another new term on the Court. The protests have grown increasingly louder and more violent in recent years on all sides of the political spectrum. Rosenberg is by far the most liberal and most threatened of all the Justices, but he welcomes the hatred and refuses to retire. He has been waiting for a Democratic president to assume office to maintain the ideological balance of the Court when he retires.

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is a conservative named John Runyan. He meets with the police and the FBI to discuss the increasing threats to the Justices. Security has been ramped up, but Rosenberg is adamant that such heavy-handed protection is not necessary even though he is “probably the most hated man in America” (9). Runyan complains to his staff about Justice Glenn Jensen, a Justice who suffers from depression and whose rulings have flipped erratically from right to left wing and seem to lack any consistency. The police complain that Jensen is also refuses their protection, as they suspect that he may be trying to hide a homosexual relationship.