Hi Ray, actually the US Supreme Court doesn't have the power, under the Constitution, to intervene into litigation or any controversy. The cases must be brought to them. There has to be litigation brought by the real party in interest, and it has to work its way through the appellate procedure, so it has to be a final decision either from the Florida Supreme Court if the litigation is in state court, or from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals if it is in federal court.
If there is protracted litigation which prevents Florida's Electors from voting for the President and the Vice President, then according to the 20th Amendment to the Constitution, on January 20, 2001, Clinton will no longer be president, and Gore will no longer be vice president, and they will step down and those offices will be vacant. If no president has been validated by the Electoral College then Congress (both parties) will appoint an acting president until the matter is resolved. If the Senate splits 50-50, Gore can't break the tie because he's gone. Edit: under the Presidential Succession Act, Denny Hastert, Speaker of the House, would act as President until Congress appointed an acting president, which would probably remain de facto Denny Hastert, unless the Senate has a Republican majority, in which case they might appoint Bush.
Congress (the House, actually, in this case) can only elect a real president in the case of a tie, or where there were more than two major candidates and none of them got a majority of the Electoral College votes. But Florida's Electoral College votes have to be certified, eventually, because all states have a constitutional right for their Electors to vote for the president. And it is impossible for there to be a tie because there is an odd number of electors.
From my perspective, as a Republican, that's a good thing, because otherwise when the House voted for the real president, each state would cast one vote, reflecting the vote of the majority of each state's Representatives, and the majority of state delegations are Democrats, even though there are more Republican Representatives. Believe it or not, states with a majority of Republican Representatives are found on either coast, and states with a majority of Democrat Representatives are found in the heartland. It's almost a reverse image of the results in the Presidential election.
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