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The Count and the Constitution |
| Section: CURRENT ISSUES / EYE ON THE HIGH COURT |
| Author: David C. Slade |
| Publication:
The World & I Online |
| Issue Date: 2/1/2001 |
| Size: 1,794 Words, 11,081 Characters |
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On November 7, the country had cast its votes for president. In Florida, Texas Gov. George W. Bush at first appeared to have won 1,784 votes more than Vice President Al Gore out of the 5.8 million votes cast. With the margin less than one-half of 1 percent, Florida law required a statewide recount. The recount confirmed the Bush victory, but by only 537 votes.
While the recount was under way, the Florida Democratic Party went to state court to obtain hand recounts in four predominantly Democratic counties. The hand recount case was quickly appealed to the Florida Supreme Court, which ruled unanimously in favor of Gore and extended by 12 days the 7-day (November 14) deadline imposed by state law to certify the election. This judicial extension of the Florida legislature's deadline set the stage for Bush's appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Against the arguments of the Gore lawyers that the U.S. Supreme Court had no jurisdiction in the case--that the Florida Supreme Court was simply interpreting state law and thus no "federal question" existed--the U.S. Supreme Court accepted Bush's a...
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...Bush I and Bush II are strained decisions, but given the pressing crisis at hand, the U.S. Supreme Court did demonstrate, for better or for worse, that it could discharge its "unsought responsibility to resolve the federal and constitutional issues the judicial system has been forced to confront," as it said in its Bush II ruling. Perhaps, just perhaps, this is what the framers had in mind.
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Publication Details
(The World & I Online) |
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The World & I Online is a
comprehensive academic resource that encompasses a broad range of
articles by scholars and experts in the areas of Global Studies,
Liberal Arts, Fine & Applied Arts, General Science, and Spanish.
Originally published monthly in print as The World & I, our site
includes the complete contents since 1986 and continues to publish
a new issue online each month. |
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