When the White House first learned of the pending retirement of Justice Thomas Williams, three months before he made it official, a secret memo was circulated among the President's inner circle regarding his possible replacement. The name at the top of the short list belonged to Louis Cicala, Chief Justice of the New York Supreme Court.

The President's men had already privately offered Judge Cicala the job and he had accepted with modest alacrity. The FBI had run a background check and found him clean. He was a bachelor, lived frugally, helped his neighbors, read voraciously, loved classical music and haunted used books stores. A Methodist, he also attended church regularly, was an accomplished mimic and Shakespearean actor from his college days at Dartmouth, enjoyed hiking, often alone, and was extremely averse to publicity.

The President's men had already sounded key Senators on both sides of the aisle. They found them full of praise for judge Cicala's intelligence, scholarly output and judicial temperament. During his long legal career, judge Cicala had been a judicious interpreter of the Constitution. He seldom deviated from precedent, especially on controversial issues such as abortion, separation of church and state, victims' rights, and freedom of speech. His nomination, the President's men told the President, would easily gain the solid backing of constitutional scholars and the American Bar Association.

But what impressed the President, the President's men and Senators the most was judge Cicala's staunch support for the rights of victims of child sexual abuse. His ruling in cases involving the use of recovered memory testimony have won him rave reviews from both liberal and conservatives groups, who believed that because of the rising incidents of child sexual abuse in America, it was high time greater credence was given to recovered memory testimony.

These groups, the President's men thought, would be key to winning approval for judge Cicala's nomination. Sensational tales about recovered memories of molestation and incest were the grist for talk-shows and celebrity magazines. The President's men predicted it would be easy to flood the Senate Judiciary committee with thousands of e-mail, telephone calls, letters and faxes supporting judge Cicala during the confirmation hearings. Polls showed that the majority of the American people felt that the issue of childhood sexual abuse, which until recently was rarely mentioned and then only in hushed tones, should have a powerful advocate on the nation's highest court.

The President's men informed judge Cicala that as soon as Justice Williams made his resignation official, he, Cicala, would be invited to join the President at a Rose Garden ceremony announcing his nomination.

"When will that be?" Judge Cicala asked.

"In two weeks," said the President's men.

Judge Cicala then told the President's men that he would like to take a much-needed vacation before the Senate votes on his confirmation. According to the White House, not even the judge's closest friends know where he's gone. But there's speculation  in the media that Cicala, who has expressed an eagerness to go on a big hike before he's confirmed, may be out of the country, hiking somewhere in the Himalayas or the Andes. 

Chapter One

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