The four days I’d spent at home over Thanksgiving had provided spa-like rejuvenation. Aside from the Sanjay debacle, the weekend in Reston had been divine. Puja shipped Charlie back to New York, enabling the rest of us to enjoy the weekend. We visited all the Raj family hot spots, namely the grocery store, the couch, and Tysons Corner Mall (Matthew respectfully declined this particular activity, opting to watch football instead).

All in all, I’d returned to Philadelphia refreshed. So much so that I’d even returned one of Sanjay’s calls. I remained on the line long enough to hear how he hadn’t meant to hurt me (then he shouldn’t have been banging Ludmila), how he’d never intended to fall for Gayle (her name wasn’t Gayle), how he’d felt so much pressure from his parents to marry an Indian (how novel) and wanted to be friends (not a chance).

While Sanjay’s betrayal had left a sting, it’d become clear to me that we should have broken up months earlier. And in any case, who had time for relationships when dissents had to be produced ASAP?!

Matthew and I hunkered down with Adams’s majority opinion, which focused solely on a court of appeals’ deference to the courts below, burying the Drexel case in a footnote. This meant Adams had simply cited it in passing, without attempting to differentiate it from our case. We planned to use Drexel, the ninth circuit decision with a fact pattern similar to the Nelson case, as our ticket to an en banc hearing. By ignoring Drexel, Adams made it that much easier for us. Maybe Adams really wasn’t an adequate pick for the Supreme Court.

“So my thought is that we highlight the fact that Adams has brushed over Drexel,” I whispered to Matthew, joining him at the table between our cubicles.

“And simply drive home that if we decide not to give Nelson a resentencing,” Matthew added, “we’ll create a circuit split—plain and simple.”

“Exactly,” I said, smiling. “It doesn’t have to be long. I think in this instance, the shorter the better.”

“Yeah, agreed—but even if Drexel didn’t exist, you do realize that appeals courts can hear cases en banc in cases of exceptional importance. This, to me, seems like one of those cases. You know, Sheila, I just can’t understand how someone would actually vote to not give this guy another hearing. Most of the time, I can see both sides of the issue. And honestly, I was sort of on the fence before about the death penalty. But this case has sent me far in the direction of thinking we have to get rid of it altogether. If the government can’t administer death fairly, it has no business administering it at all,” Matthew pronounced, impassioned.