Many Democrats and other liberals were mad and are still mad at the Supreme Court's decision involving the 2000 presidential election. The Supreme Court was correct in its decision based on law, as the history books will show in the future.
One reason they used time for the ruling was as an exuse for the fact that they really couldn't let the
Florida Supreme Court do a
recount. The
Constitution says that the state
legislature picks the
electors, and I quote
Article II "Each
state shall
appoint, in such manner as the
Legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of
Senators and
Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the
Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under the
United States, shall be appointed an elector." Had the Florida Supreme Court declared
Al Gore the winner, it would not have mattered. The
Legislative Branch chooses the true electors. Court appointed electors don't mean anything. That is the legal fact. Maybe that is not fair, but that is what the Constitution, the most important document the
Supreme Court has to go by, says. Balance between the
three branches of government is one of the most important principles in our system of government. We would have had a real
Constitional Crisis on our hands had the
US Supreme Court allowed for a major battle over power between branches.
Also, the main other problem with the recount is that there were no standards, so the count was
completely unfair.
Leon County I believe, counted votes on 4 times as many undervotes as
Palm Beach. They seemed to count a
vote if there was even a scratch on a
ballot. I think everyone, even 7-2 US Supreme Court, realized we needed
standard sets of rules for what votes to count and what to not count. The problem with this is that because of a
constitutional issue, and
common sense, you can't change the rules of the election during the election, the new rules affect the new election. We all agree
Florida needs new
election laws, but it isn't right if they affect something that has already happened.
The
Constituion is what the
US Supreme Court had to go by when making decisions. This has always been the case, it is their most important guidance during
judicial decisions. The Constitution is not always totally fair, but it is what we must go by. This decision has made me
respect the US Supreme Court even more. By the way, the
Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court went against them ordering the recounts, a
Democrat. This wasn't a completely
partisan decision at least. This was about the Constitution, not about what was directly fair or not.