The Founders' Plot

TWO DAYS AFTER her extortion attempt on Mike, Stern and Griswold were at the senate press room’s podium. Griswold looked tired, the lids of his blood-shot eyes drooping slightly. Stern, however, appeared rested and ready for action.

Stern adjusted the podium microphone first with her right hand and then her left, cupping it in precisely the same manner each time. After preliminary remarks, she announced that a new immigration bill was being drafted.

“The legislation we soon plan to have will be more realistic than the first one and far more likely to pass judicial scrutiny,” she said. “We believe it will do the job the people want without going as far as the first bill did. We’ll take your questions now,” she said, and pointed to a reporter in the first row.

He glanced at his notebook. “The governor’s party holds both houses. How do you expect to get the new bill passed?”

“They’ve only got us by two seats in the senate,” Stern responded. “I’m quite sure we’ll pull enough of the opposition to get the bill passed. We’re still tallying up in the house.”

Griswold leaned toward the microphone. “We’re in rather good shape. There are members of the governor’s party who are concerned about what he’s doing. We’ll likely get quite a few to break ranks.”

Stern added, “The people are taking note of all this—the arrogant defiance of the court, the confrontational attitude regarding sanctuary cities, the riots—and they’re realizing that the governor is not the man they thought they voted for. I think there’s some buyer’s remorse out there, and that will nudge their representatives to vote for our bill.”

She motioned with her head to another reporter.

“Why announce this now?” he asked. “The bill hasn’t even been introduced.”

“Good question,” Stern said. “We want to let the people know that we’re taking action to avert a confrontation that the governor seems intent on having.”

“What if the governor vetoes it?” the same reporter asked.

Stern thought back to her meeting with Mike and tried to keep any giveaway expression from her face. “Maybe he won’t. He could change his mind.

“If he doesn’t, we may be able to override it. The sanctuary-city mayors are working with us to change a few minds in congress. If the governor sees a lot of defections in his party, he may reconsider the veto. If not, we’ve still got to try. There’s a lot at stake. We want to steer us away from a needless showdown created by the governor’s personal dislike of what he sees as the judiciary abridging legislative power. He’s stated that clearly.”

Stern next called on a woman from the Sacramento Bee. “What kind of showdown are you talking about?”

“Well, one possibility is that the federal government might act to back the court’s decision. The president has no authority over local and state police, but he could federalize the National Guard to prevent enforcement of the immigration law.

“It’s been done before. In 1963, for instance, President Kennedy used the guard in Alabama to make sure two Black students could enter an all-white university. And there have been similar presidential actions. This is certainly a different situation, but what I’m saying is that there is precedent. It could happen and we’d like to avoid it.”

“But the president is a friend of the governor,” another reporter blurted out.

“That won’t matter,” Griswold said. “The president isn’t going to let that prevent him from doing his duty. He’d get a worse black eye than the governor.”

Griswold then pointed to the reporter from one of the local TV stations, a Robert Redford look-alike, with a thick mass of curly, light red hair.

“Pardon me, but this sounds like an exercise in futility. What’s to gain from doing this?”

Stern gripped the sides of the podium. “I am not exaggerating when I say that this is an attack on our judicial system,” she said solemnly, as if giving a funeral sermon. “The people need to know what’s happening and how dangerous it is. We want to be on record as having done everything we could to put things right. Maybe the governor will budge when he sees how hard we plan to fight. And maybe a drop in his poll numbers might give him pause.”

“DiGrasso’s not a poll watcher,” the reporter said.

Griswold chuckled. “Don’t kid yourself. Every politician is a poll watcher, some more than others, but we’re all susceptible to them to one degree or another.” He signaled to a reporter in the rear of the room, who straightened his tie as he stood. “How is this bill going to be different than the one that was struck down?”

“I can’t give you all the details because it’s not finished yet,” Griswold said. “It will be quite similar to the original bill but without provisions that might cause the Supreme Court to rule against it.”

They took questions for another fifteen minutes and ended the conference.