I am beginning to get the sense that when I approach the same brilliant librarians all over the city, upon seeing me with my arms full of papers and books and a look of confused determination, their chests tighten, their eyes scan for the nearest exit, and they pray I will trip and be rendered unconscious – at least until their shifts end.
I have become too focused on J.S. Bossier. Yes, this is essential, but I need to first finish my chapter on the Van Benthuysen trial…and my synopsis, and my query….
So this is my latest challenge, or as I like to call it, another “five-hour sentence”: A sentence or two, typically unassuming and understated, that takes hours of archival excavation.
In the libel trial I am researching, the editors of the Mascot were sent to prison for contempt of court. Their lawyer, the former governor of Louisiana Francis T. Nicholls, filed a petition for a writ of certiorari. For the non-legal person (like myself) this basically means that a party asks the Supreme Court to review and (and hopefully overturn) a ruling against them. This does happen in my trial (and with a sound scolding from the Supreme Court judges to the lower court judges for being zealous yet ignorant of the law). What tripped me up is this – I also read that currently on average only 1.1% of these cases are overturned. So of course this got me thinking – what was the average for the state of Louisiana in 1882? I can only imagine the percentage was low and this must make the case even more extraordinary for its time…. Which leads me to another five-hour sentence. And another visit to a patient librarian.