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2000-12-13 US Supreme Court Decision on Presidential
Election
I have a chance to read Federal Supreme Court
decision on CNN. This world is really convenient to see the
verdict almost on line. My personal impression
is that the verdict is most reasonable one
, taking into account the whole current situation
politically and socially.
But dissenting opinion of judges are more
interesting for me, and from the pure legal
point of view, "The most important
thing we do is not doing" would be right
answer.
<Excerpt>
SUPREME COURT OF UNITED STATES (Dec.12, 2000);George W Bush, et al., Petitioners v. Albert
Gore, Jr.,et al.
Per Curiam; (through the court)
I; With respect to the equal protection question,
we find a violation of the Equal Protection
Clause.
II.A;II.B;
Because it is evident that any recount seeking
to meet the December 12 date will be unconstitutional
for the reasons we have discussed, we reverse
the judgment of the Supreme Court of Florida
ordering a recount to proceed.
Seven Justices of the Court agree that there
are constitutional problems with the recount
ordered by the Florida Supreme Court that
demand a remedy. See post, at 6 (SOUTER,
J., dissenting); post, at 2, 15 (BREYER,
J., dissenting).
The judgment of the Supreme Court of Florida
is reversed, and the case is remanded for
further proceedings not inconsistent with
this opinion. It is so ordered.
<Remark>
The percentage of nonvotes in this election
in counties using a punch-card system was
3.92%; In contrast, the rate of error under
the more modern optical-scan systems was
only 1.43%.
Justice Breyer, dissenting
The majority raised three Equal Protection
problems with Florida Supreme Court's recount
order; first, the failure to include overvotes
in the manual recount; second, the fact that
all ballots, rather than simply the undervotes,
were recounted in some, but not all, counties;
and third, the absence of a uniform, specific
standard to guide the recounts.
"The most important thing we do is not
doing". What it does repair the damage
done as best we now can, by permitting the
Florida recount to continue under uniform
standards. I respectfully dissent.