The Wen Ho Lee case was a peculiar form of hysteria that sucked in Democrats as well as Republicans. Lee, a computer scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, was an initial suspect in an FBI investigation into the loss of nuclear warhead data to China. But the evidence against him was so thin that Justice Department officials refused to authorize a wiretap on his telephone. In outrage, Democratic Senator Robert Torricelli bullied Reno, according to The American Lawyer, in a closed meeting in which he more or less blamed her for conniving in the loss of US military secrets. In fact, anybody who examined the evidence against Lee--as Torricelli had not done--could see there was no basis to charge him with espionage, and he has not been so charged to this day. He is accused of downloading secret files--many of which were formally classified only after he had downloaded them--onto an unauthorized computer. Lee's case is scheduled for trial in November.

Finally, in the case of Elián González, the law has been reasonably clear. A child cannot normally claim political asylum in defiance of his parents' wishes. After months of negotiating with Elián's Cuban relatives in Miami, Reno revoked the authority she had granted them to care for the boy and ordered federal agents to seize him and return him to his father. Reno's reluctance to use force opened her up to a hectoring attack in the New York Times by Maureen Dowd, who interpreted her caution as dithering: "Ms. Reno gets easily intimidated by worst-case scenarios. Highlight reels of her disasters play in her head in an endless loop, negating every option." The very next day, however, the Times editorial page praised her: "Ms. Reno has shown commendable restraint, and is wise to avoid a confrontation in Miami between federal authorities and Cuban-Americans who oppose Elián's return to his father."

These two conflicting views are typical of commentary on Reno's performance; the same set of facts produces widely disparate opinions, from the most scathing abuse to generous praise, with the critics and defenders acting as if they have an open-and-shut case that is beyond dispute. In early June a federal appeals court panel affirmed the INS's jurisdiction in allowing Elián's father to speak for him in the custody dispute; unless further appeals succeed, Elián and his father will return to Cuba. Politicians and a handful of civil rights purists may object, but there is little doubt that Reno followed established law--even in sending in overwhelming armed force to seize the child.

Personally, I would fault Reno for one decision: Her approval of the prosecution of Lemrick Nelson on civil rights charges after a state jury acquitted him of the 1991 murder of Yankel Rosenbaum, an Australian visitor, during the Crown Heights riots in Brooklyn. Nelson's acquittal was a miscarriage of justice, but in retrying him on federal charges the Justice Department violated the basic prohibition on subjecting a person to double jeopardy for the same offense. In any case, the public seems overwhelmingly to have approved Nelson's conviction.

Perhaps the public understands these cases better than politicians or editorial writers. After seven years in office, Reno is held in high regard, and her critics, from the Cuban-Americans of Miami to the Republican leaders of Congress, can be heard gnashing their teeth. Overall, Janet Reno has shown the power, in public life, of political independence, plain speech and common sense.

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