WILL SHE HAVE HER DAY IN COURT ?

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Further complicating the case are some unusual court dynamics. The most conservative Justices, like Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, who may be least warmly inclined toward this particular President, have been the most philosophically committed to a strong presidency. More liberal members, who are more open to the general idea of allowing a President to be sued, may have more sympathy for this President, who elevated two of them to the bench. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg may be in the toughest position of all. As a former women's-rights litigator and a Supreme Court moderate, she is certainly a potential Jones vote. But with the Washington rumor mill saying Clinton will appoint her Chief Justice if Rehnquist retires, it could be a hard time for any judge in her position to rule against the President in a major case.

In the end, the deciding factor may be one that should, as a legal matter, be irrelevant: the raw quality of Jones' allegations. A decision in her favor would open the President up not to a run-of-the-mill civil lawsuit but a potentially lurid judicial voyage through a world of alleged use of state troopers to procure women, and purported "bimbo eruptions." Clinton would no doubt be questioned about contentions like paragraph 22 of Jones' complaint: that "[t]here were distinguishing characteristics in Clinton's genital area that were obvious to Jones." Even Justices reluctant to extend presidential privilege may feel that there are some questions the leader of the free world should not have to answer.