Executive orders - Tom Clancy [544]
The devil was always in the details. In this case, it might not be a devil at all, Alex realized.
There were now 3,451 Ebola cases in the country. That included those who had started dying, those who showed frank symptoms, and those who showed antibodies. The number by itself wasn't large. Lower than AIDS deaths, lower by more than two orders of magnitude than cancer and heart disease. The statistical study, aided by FBI interviews and feedback from local physicians all over the country, had established 223 primary cases, all of them infected at trade shows, and all of whom had infected others who had in turn infected more. Though the incoming cases were still on the upslope, the rate was lower than that predicted by preexisting computer models and at Hopkins they'd had the first case of someone who showed antibodies, but no symptoms
There should have been more primary cases, Alex, Pickett said. We started seeing that last night. The first one who died, he flew from Phoenix to Dallas. The FBI got the flight records, and University of Texas tested everybody aboard, finished this morning. Only one shows antibodies, and he isn't really symptomatic.
Risk factors?
Gingivitis. Bleeding gums, General Pickett reported.
It's trying to be an aerosol but
That's what I think, Alex. The secondary cases appear to be mostly intimate contact. Hugs, kisses, taking personal care of a loved one. If we're right, this will peak in three days, and then it'll stop. Along the way we'll start seeing survivors.
We have one of those at Hopkins. She's got the antibodies, but it didn't get beyond the initial presentation.
We need to get Gus working on environmental degradation. He should be already.
Agreed. You call him. I'm doing some follow-ups down here.
THE JUDGE WAS an old friend of Kealty. Martin wasn't exactly sure how he'd fiddled with the docket in this particular district, but that didn't matter now. The two presentations had taken about thirty minutes each. It was, as Kealty had said and the Solicitor General had agreed, a fundamentally simple point of law, though the practical applications of it led into all manner of complexity. It was also a matter of great urgency, as a result of which the judge reappeared from chambers after a mere hour's contemplation. He would read his decision from his notes, and type up a full opinion later in the day.
The Court, he began, is cognizant of the grave danger facing the country, and must sympathize with President Ryan's sincerely felt duty to safeguard the lives of Americans in addition to their freedoms.
However, the Court must acknowledge the fact that the Constitution is, and remains, the supreme law of the land. To violate that legal bulwark is a step that potentially sets a precedent with consequences so grave as to reach beyond the current crisis, and though the President is certainly acting under the best motives, this Court must vacate the executive order, trusting our citizens to act intelligently and prudently in the pursuit of their own safety. So ordered.
Your Honor. The Solicitor General stood. The government will and must appeal your ruling immediately to the Fourth Circuit in Richmond. We request a stay until the paperwork can be processed, later today.
Request is denied. Court is adjourned. The judge stood and left the bench without a further word. The room, of course, erupted.
What does this mean? the Court correspondent-himself a lawyer, who knew what it probably meant-said to Ed Kealty, his microphone extended, as reporters tended to do at the moment.
It means that so-called President Ryan cannot break the law. I think I have shown here that the rule of law still exists in our country, the politician