As predicted, the Republicans have appealed to the US Supreme Court. We shall see if they have the wisdom to stay out. Everyone who touches this case will be tarred by it. The Florida Supreme Court has lost what little respect it had as a non-partisan court. I for one wasn't surprised by the decision, but was very disappointed that not one judge had the dignity to stand up and say that the court was going too far.
The USSC may not be able to resist this case, though. They Florida SC broke all rules of separation of powers in their decision. They legislated by creating a new ending date, replacing the one in the statute. They exercised the Secretary of State's discretionary power for her. Essentially they have assumed absolute control of the government of Florida. Where it gets interesting is if the other branches start rebelling, which they may. Suppose Harris refuses to certify the manually recounted votes? She would no doubt be held in contempt of court, but courts used to be loathe to issue court orders because they have little power to actually force someone to do something against their will. Suppose that the Florida legislature refuses to obey and appoints the Republican electors? Will Clinton order in the National Guard to force them to do the bidding of the Florida SC? Yes, things are bad now, but they can always get worse. These are some ugly scenarios that I paint, but when one branch of government tries to dominate the others bad things can happen. As a result, even though they should refuse cert, the US SC may feel compelled to deal with the troubling constitutional questions.
The whole situation is rather sad. Probably the best possible outcome would be if Gore can't "find" enough votes to put him over the top. That way the whole matter will hopefully just die down and the constitutional crisis will melt away before getting out of hand. Other than that, I just don't know how this can end up without further trouble.
Carl |
