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A LAYMAN'S GUIDE TO THE SUPREME COURT DECISION IN BUSH
V. GORE by Mark H. Levine, Attorney at Law.
Q: I'm not a lawyer and I don't understand the recent Supreme Court decision in
Bush v. Gore. Can you explain it to me?
A: Sure. I'm a lawyer. I read it. It says Bush wins, even if Gore got the most
votes.
Q: So Bush wins because hand-counts are illegal?
A: Oh no. Six of the justices (two-thirds majority) believed the hand-counts
were legal and should be done.
Q: Oh. So the justices did not believe that the hand-counts would find any legal
ballots?
A. Nope. The five conservative justices clearly held (and all nine justices
agreed) "that punch card balloting machines can produce an unfortunate
number of ballots which are not punched in a clean, complete way by the
voter." So there are legal votes that should be counted but can't be.
Q: Oh. Does this have something to do with states' rights? Don't conservatives
love that?
A: Generally yes. These five justices, in the past few years, have held that the
federal government has no business telling a sovereign state university it can't
steal trade secrets just because such stealing is prohibited by law. Nor does
the federal government have any business telling a state that it should bar guns
in schools. Nor can the federal government use the equal protection clause to
force states to take measures to stop violence against women.
Q: Is there an exception in this case?
A: Yes, the Gore exception. States have no rights to have their own state
elections when it can result in Gore being elected President. This decision is
limited to only this situation.
Q: C'mon. The Supremes didn't really say that. You're exaggerating.
A: Nope. They held "Our consideration is limited to the present
circumstances, or the problem of equal protection in election processes
generally presents many complexities."
Q: What complexities?
A: They don't say.
Q: I'll bet I know the reason. I heard Jim Baker say this. The votes can't be
counted because the Florida Supreme Court "changed the rules of the
election after it was held." Right? A. Dead wrong. The US Supreme Court
made clear that the Florida Supreme Court did not change the rules of the
election. But the US Supreme Court found the failure of the Florida Court to
change the rules was wrong.
Q: Huh?
A: The Legislature declared that the only legal standard for counting vote is
"clear intent of the voter." The Florida Court was condemned for not
adopting a clearer standard.
Q: I thought the Florida Court was not allowed to change the Legislature's law
after the election.
A: Right.
Q: So what's the problem?
A: They should have. The US Supreme Court said the Florida Supreme Court should
have "adopt[ed] adequate statewide standards for determining what is a
legal vote"
Q: I thought only the Legislature could "adopt" new law.
A: Right.
Q: So if the Court had adopted new standards, I thought it would have been
overturned.
A: Right. You're catching on.
Q: If the Court had adopted new standards, it would have been overturned for
changing the rules. And if it didn't, it's overturned for not changing the
rules. That means that no matter what the Florida Supreme Court did, legal votes
could never be counted.
A: Right. Next question.
Q: Wait, wait. I thought the problem was "equal protection," that some
counties counted votes differently from others. Isn't that a problem?
A: It sure is. Across the nation, we vote in a hodgepodge of systems. Some, like
the optical-scanners in largely Republican-leaning counties record 99.7% of the
votes. Some, like the punchcard systems in largely Democratic-leaning counties record only 97% of the votes. So approximately 3% of Democratic votes
are thrown in the trash can.
Q: Aha! That's a severe equal-protection problem!!!
A: No it's not. The Supreme Court wasn't worried about the 3% of Democratic
ballots thrown in the trashcan in Florida. That "complexity" was not a
problem.
Q: Was it the butterfly ballots that violated Florida law and tricked more than
20,000 Democrats to vote for Buchanan or Gore and Buchanan.
A: Nope. The Supreme Court has no problem believing that Buchanan got his
highest, best support in a precinct consisting of a Jewish old age home with
Holocaust survivors, who apparently have changed their mind about Hitler.
Q: Yikes. So what was the serious equal protection problem?
A: The problem was neither the butterfly ballot nor the 3% of Democrats (largely
African-American) disenfranchised. The problem is that somewhat less than .005%
of the ballots may have been determined under slightly different standards
because judges sworn to uphold the law and doing their best to accomplish the
legislative mandate of "clear intent of the voter" may have a slightly
different opinion about the voter's intent.
Q: Hmmm. OK, so if those votes are thrown out, you can still count the votes
where everyone agrees the voter's intent is clear?
A: Nope.
Q: Why not?
A: No time.
Q: No time to count legal votes where everyone, even Republicans, agree the
intent is clear? Why not?
A: Because December 12 was yesterday.
Q: Is December 12 a deadline for counting votes?
A: No. January 6 is the deadline. In 1960, Hawaii's votes weren't counted until
January 4.
Q: So why is December 12 important?
A: December 12 is a deadline by which Congress can't challenge the results.
Q: What does the Congressional role have to do with the Supreme Court?
A: Nothing.
Q: But I thought ---
A: The Florida Supreme Court had earlier held it would like to complete its work
by December 12 to make things easier for Congress. The United States Supreme Court is trying to help the Florida Supreme
Court out by forcing the Florida court to abide by a deadline that everyone
agrees is not binding.
Q: But I thought the Florida Court was going to just barely have the votes
counted by December 12.
A: They would have made it, but the five conservative justices stopped the
recount last Saturday.
Q: Why?
A: Justice Scalia said some of the counts may not be legal.
Q: So why not separate the votes into piles, indentations for Gore, hanging
chads for Bush, votes that everyone agrees went to one candidate or the other so
that we know exactly how Florida voted before determining who won? Then, if some
ballots (say, indentations) have to be thrown out, the American people will know
right away who won Florida.
A. Great idea! The US Supreme Court rejected it.
They held that such counts would likely to produce election results showing Gore
won and Gore's winning would cause "public acceptance" and that would
"cast[] a cloud" over Bush's "legitimacy" that would harm
"democratic stability."
Q: In other words, if America knows the truth that Gore won, they won't accept
the US Supreme Court overturning Gore's victory?
A: Yes.
Q: Is that a legal reason to stop recounts? or a political one?
A: Let's just say in all of American history and all of American law, this
reason has no basis in law. But that doesn't stop the
five conservatives from creating new law out of thin air.
Q: Aren't these conservative justices against judicial activism?
A: Yes, when liberal judges are perceived to have done it.
Q: Well, if the December 12 deadline is not binding, why not count the votes?
A: The US Supreme Court, after admitting the December 12 deadline is not
binding, set December 12 as a binding deadline at 10 p.m. on December 12.
Q: Didn't the US Supreme Court condemn the Florida Supreme Court for arbitrarily
setting a deadline?
A: Yes.
Q: But, but --
A: Not to worry. The US Supreme Court does not have to follow laws it sets for
other courts.
Q: So who caused Florida to miss the December 12 deadline?
A: The Bush lawyers who first went to court to stop the recount, the mob in
Miami that got paid Florida vacations for intimidating officials, and the US
Supreme Court for stopping the recount.
Q: So who is punished for this behavior?
A: Gore, of course.
Q: Tell me this: Florida's laws are unconstitutional, right?
A: Yes
Q: And the laws of 50 states that allow votes to be cast or counted differently
are unconstitutional?
A: Yes. And 33 of those states have the "clear intent of the voter"
standard that the US Supreme Court found was illegal in
Florida.
Q: Then why aren't the results of 33 states thrown out?
A: Um. Because...um.....the Supreme Court doesn't say...
Q: But if Florida's certification includes counts expressly declared by the US
Supreme Court to be unconstitutional, we don't know who really won the election
there, right?
A: Right. Though a careful analysis by the Miami Herald shows Gore won Florida
by about 20,000 votes (excluding the
butterfly ballot errors).
Q: So, what do we do, have a re-vote? Throw out the entire state? Count all
ballots under a single uniform standard?
A: No. We just don't count the votes that favor Gore.
Q: That's completely bizarre! That sounds like rank political favoritism! Did
the justices have any financial interest in the case?
A: Scalia's two sons are both lawyers working for Bush. Thomas's wife is
collecting applications for people who want to work in the Bush administration.
Q: Why didn't they recuse themselves?
A: If either had recused himself, the vote would be 4-4, and the Florida Supreme
Court decision allowing recounts would have
been affirmed.
Q: I can't believe the justices acted in such a blatantly political way.
A: Read the opinions for yourself: http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/supremecourt/00-949_dec12.fdf
(December 9 stay stopping the recount), and http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/00pdf/00-949.pdf
(December 12 final opinion)
Q: So what are the consequences of this?
A: The guy who got the most votes in the US and in Florida and under our
Constitution (Al Gore) will lose to America's
second choice who won the all important 5-4 Supreme Court vote.
Q: I thought in a democracy, the guy with the most votes wins.
A: True, in a democracy. But America is not a democracy. In America, in the year
2000, the guy with the most US Supreme
Court votes wins.
Q: Is there any way to stop the Supreme Court from doing this again?
A: YES. No federal judge can be confirmed without a vote in the Senate. It takes
60 votes to break a filibuster. If only 41 of the 50 Democratic Senators stand up to Bush and his Supremes and say that they will
not approve a single judge appointed by him until a President can be democratically elected in 2004, the judicial reign
of terror can end... and one day we can hope to return to the rule of law.
Q: What do I do now?
A: E-mail this to everyone you know, and write or call your senator, reminding
him that Gore beat Bush by several hundred thousand votes (three times Kennedy's
margin over Nixon) and that you believe that VOTERS rather than JUDGES should determine who wins an election by counting every vote. And to protect our
judiciary from overturning the will of the people, you want them to confirm NO
NEW JUDGES until 2004 when a president is finally chosen by most of the American
people.
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