The courthouse was packed. People were wedged into the wooden benches in the public seating on the main level and up in the gallery. More stood two and three deep around the edges. The coalition was a notable presence, but there were an equal number of faces Norah didn’t recognize. Almost all of them were either zoned out or confused.
At the front of the courtroom, Dr. Elissa Brosnan, professor of economics from the University of Mississippi, was engaged in active debate with Arnold Chiles, the representative from the firm who’d produced the original economic impact study. From a purely academic standpoint, Dr. Brosnan was winning. But the entire discussion was taking place at a level of technicality that the vast majority of those present couldn’t possibly follow. That wasn’t exactly con
