An Old Hand At Court Gears Up for Battle

We photograph attorney Walter Dellinger who will argue on the District's behalf in the case of the city's 30 year ban on handguns. Photo shows Dellinger addressing the stand-in Supreme Court Judges in the moot court setting. (Gerald Martineau - The Washington Post)

Dellinger's wife, Anne, a former University of North Carolina law professor who splits time between Chapel Hill, N.C., and Washington, was in town. She was dressed in overalls and stretched out on the couch in her husband's office reading an abortion-rights book. It was the only way she was going to spend much time with him.

Dellinger argued nine cases as acting solicitor general, the officer who represents the government in Supreme Court cases, from 1996 to 1997 in the Clinton administration. But recent weeks have been more intense. "I don't remember having to work quite this hard for this period of time," he said. "Nine cases in nine months is not three in four weeks."

He has done crash reading. He has interviewed D.C. police officers to learn how the gun law plays on the streets. And last week he held three practice sessions, including one at Harvard University.

Thomas C. Goldstein, an experienced Supreme Court advocate from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld who is assisting the District, said Morrison, who was responsible for most of the court brief, was more versed in the case. But Morrison was "so deep into it that he was very committed to a particular strategy," Goldstein said. "Walter is more willing to compromise and go where the justices go. He's more flexible."

Dellinger would have been content with a career in academia. But in 1989, after speaking at a conference, he was approached by the Virginia Hospital Association, which was seeking an advocate in its Supreme Court fight against the state for more Medicaid funding. Dellinger was asked to interview the next day. So he pulled an all-nighter, studying in the Duke faculty lounge, and made up for what he didn't know by bluffing. He got the gig -- and later won the case.

Dellinger's public profile soared. In 1993, he was tapped by President Bill Clinton to be an assistant attorney general under Janet Reno. Dellinger's personable, persuasive style was apparent from the start. At a Justice Department party, he persuaded Reno to dance with him to "Mustang Sally," a moment later parodied on "Saturday Night Live."

He grew up in Chapel Hill with two sisters and a mother who sold men's clothing accessories. His father died when he was 12, and he figures that had something to do with the fact that he never owned a gun like some peers. "No one took me hunting or fishing," he said.

He graduated from the University of North Carolina, where he met Anne, and then Yale Law School. During more than 20 years at Duke, Dellinger became a nationally renowned constitutional expert who testified before Congress on abortion rights and against school prayer.

He rides a beat-up road bike around town and talks slowly, a Tar Heel inflection still in his voice.

Carter G. Phillips, a lawyer friend from Sidley & Austin, said Dellinger can be too folksy. As a professor, Phillips said, Dellinger had an hour to take his class through a narrative journey. In the Supreme Court, there is no such luxury.

"You better figure out what's the five-word answer, not the 105-word answer," Phillips said. "Walter struggles with that."

After Dellinger was promoted to acting solicitor general in 1996, Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) blocked his confirmation for the full-time job. Dellinger blames it on his support of former governor James Hunt's failed bid to unseat Helms in 1984.

"It was purely political," said Rep. David E. Price (D-N.C.), a college classmate. Dellinger is "not a guy who's going to try to act on personal opinions. He's very firmly grounded in the law."

Still, Dellinger handled a full slate of cases, including supporting a provision of the Brady gun control law that sought to require local law enforcement officials to conduct background checks on people who wanted to buy guns. He lost that one. He also lost while arguing that Paula Jones should not be allowed to pursue a civil lawsuit against a sitting president.

Heading back to his office after a lunch break on that recent Saturday, Dellinger popped into a newsstand to buy a copy of Sports Illustrated with North Carolina basketball star Tyler Hansbrough on the cover. He and his wife have a magazine rack in Chapel Hill featuring Tar Heel covers since the days of Michael Jordan.

Dellinger can deliver a rapturous analysis of Jordan's heroic sequence in the National Basketball Association finals against the Utah Jazz 10 years ago. And right there on the street, he did just that, relishing in the revelry of the big game, the winning play.

Just the thought of it made him smile.