Hanover, New Hampshire (town — Immaculate Heart of Mary parish)
Detailed Involvements
Events with rich location context
Hanover/New Hampshire functions as the stand-in for state legislative power in Bartlet's scenario; the state's hypothetical authority to ban cream in coffee is used to expose limits of judicial remedy under strict textualism.
Invoked as a sober, plausible jurisdiction capable of enacting odd local laws.
Hypothetical legislative actor and geographic context for testing state-level regulation.
Signals how localized lawmaking can have surprising moral-political consequences when abstracted legal doctrines are strictly applied.
Not applicable in the hypothetical; jurisdictional powers implied.
Hanover (New Hampshire) is invoked as a regional touchstone for local lawmaking and the imagined jurisdiction that might ban cream in coffee; it grounds Bartlet's hypothetical in a plausible state context.
Evoked as small‑town, orderly civic life — a place where parochial laws could be passed and noticed by Washington.
Illustrative jurisdictional source of hypothetical legislation, concretizing how local statutes could produce national political consequences.
Represents the federalist reality that states can regulate personal behavior, thereby forcing national officials to confront local moral politics.
Not applicable in the present—used only as a rhetorical jurisdictional example.
Hanover is referenced as the origin of Father Cavanaugh — a moral geography supplying the spiritual resource Bartlet requests. It functions narratively as the distance Bartlet must bridge between national power and parish-level conscience.
Implied small-town calm and pastoral steadiness
Source location for pastoral counsel called into the presidency
Represents a moral counterpoint to Washington's procedural machinery
Not directly restricted but practically requires travel and discretion to summon its priest
Hanover is referenced as the home of Father Cavanaugh; its mention imports a small-town, parish-rooted moral authority into the President's urban, institutional world and serves as the source for sacramental counsel Bartlet seeks.
Evokes quiet, pastoral steadiness and a moral counterpoint to Washington's bustle.
Source location for spiritual counsel; the origin of Father Cavanaugh's authority and availability.
Represents grounded, local faith and pastoral conscience as opposed to national politics.
Not subject to White House control beyond invitation; clergy's voluntary travel expected.
Events at This Location
Everything that happens here
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