This meant the defeat of Democratic candidate Al Gore, who won 267 electoral votes but received 266, as a " faithless elector" from the District of Columbia abstained from voting. Florida's votes gave Bush, the Republican nominee, 271 electoral votes, one more than the 270 required to win the Electoral College. The Supreme Court's decision allowed the vote certification made by Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris to stand, giving Bush Florida's 25 electoral votes. The Court, holding that not meeting the "safe harbor" deadline would therefore violate the Florida Election Code, rejected an extension of the deadline. That deadline arrived two hours after the release of the Court's decision. Instead, the majority held that no alternative method could be established within the discretionary December 12 " safe harbor" deadline set by Title 3 of the United States Code (3 U.S.C.), § 5, which the Florida Supreme Court had stated that the Florida Legislature intended to meet. The Court then ruled as to a remedy, deciding against the remedy proposed by Justices Stephen Breyer and David Souter to send the case back to Florida to complete the recount using a uniform statewide standard before the scheduled December 18 meeting of Florida's electors in Tallahassee. Constitution the case had also been argued on Article II jurisdictional grounds, which found favor with only Justices Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and William Rehnquist. Specifically, it held that the use of different standards of counting in different counties violated the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. In a 5–4 per curiam decision, the Court ruled, strictly on equal protection grounds, that the recount be stopped. In dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens wrote that "counting every legally cast vote cannot constitute irreparable harm." Oral arguments were scheduled for December 11. On December 9, the five conservative justices on the Court granted the stay, with Scalia citing "irreparable harm" that could befall Bush, as the recounts would cast "a needless and unjustified cloud" over Bush's legitimacy. Justice Antonin Scalia, convinced that all the manual recounts being performed in Florida's counties were illegitimate, urged his colleagues to grant the stay immediately. Supreme Court to stay the decision and halt the recount. The Bush campaign immediately asked the U.S. On December 8, the Florida Supreme Court had ordered a statewide recount of all undervotes, over 61,000 ballots that the vote tabulation machines had missed. 98 (2000), was a decision of the United States Supreme Court on December 12, 2000, that settled a recount dispute in Florida's 2000 presidential election between George W. Ginsburg, joined by Stevens Souter, Breyer (Part I)īreyer, joined by Stevens, Ginsburg (except Part I–A–1) Souter (Part I) Souter, joined by Breyer Stevens, Ginsburg (all but Part III) Florida Supreme Court reversed and remanded.Ĭhief Justice William Rehnquist Associate Justices John P. In the circumstances of this case, any manual recount of votes seeking to meet the December 12 "safe harbor" deadline would be unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. matter certified to Florida Supreme Court, Fla.
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