The Environment

Commitment to environmentalism is the lynchpin of protagonist Darby Shaw's "pelican brief," and a consistent theme throughout John Grisham's The Pelican Brief. When the oldest and youngest members of the Supreme Court are assassinated in a single night, Shaw is one of a host of scholars looking for a motive. Justice Rosenberg has alienated almost everyone during his 34 years on the bench. The last of the 1960s-era liberals, Rosenberg puts government before business, individuals before government, and the environment before everything. Any radical group could want him dead. Jensen's vow to "find compassion and rule with it" annoys the Republicans who put him on the Court and his rumored homosexuality angers the radical right, but his voting record is inconsistent—except on environmental matters. Seeing this coincidence, Shaw searches for a federal case that on ultimate appeal to the Supreme Court might benefit from two fewer...