The law’s words felt strong, but their spirit felt weak. By her second year on the job, she found herself quoting the law so often that she asked her assistant to laminate a copy of that one passage, so that she might carry it with her in her briefcase. “I’m in a meeting trying to explain to people that I actually do have the authority to do something I need to do,” she said. “I really tried hard not to whip it out. But I pulled it out once a week.”
