Page 11 - An Evening with Maxwell's Daemons

Justice in Limbo

“I’m next,” said Hydrargyrum Diggers, smiling at Izzy Azimuth.
The newest Daemon had been glancing around the table with a
puzzled look on his face as soon as the previous presentation
ended. “I must preface my problem with a declaration of political
neutrality, despite its fairly obvious resemblance to recent history.
Please try to keep that in mind when you turn its facets over in your
minds. I should also point out that this is therefore a sort of
alternate present as well as a fantasy to which many can relate their
own private allegiances and philosophies. Okay?”
She was greeted with a bit of brow-knitting and eye-rolling. Her
caveat was not the best way to begin, but her audience had been put
on notice.
“The situation is this: the Supreme Court is delicately balanced
between political opposites on the bench, with one member acting
as a swing vote depending on the issues involved in a case. It is the
summer before a presidential election in which the incumbent has a
very good chance of losing. His party would dearly love for a
vacancy to become open on the court, enabling them to appoint a
judge of their liking, one who would establish a long-lasting
influence contrary to what would probably be the will of the people
in that national election. Among the justices usually voting for that
anticipated ruling party’s ideology is a woman of late middle age.
She is also an outdoorswoman and pilot who owns her own small
seaplane. Are you with me, so far? Good.”
“Now, during that summer’s court recess she has had her plane
shipped to the Lae Nadzab airport in New Guinea, intending to do
some island-hopping. She was a skilled aviator, with hundreds of
hours in the air and great familiarity with her aircraft. Her own
supporters were understandably nervous about such a risky
adventure, but she was single, childless and a very determined
woman. She took commercial flights to reach her starting point, and
there put her plane through rigorous mechanical checks and made a
short test flight. Then she was off, flying solo but maintaining radio
contact with several stations in the region. Her first destination was
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