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Biotech / Medical : Biotech Valuation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tom pope who wrote (2256)	12/8/2000 8:47:43 PM
From: Biomaven	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 52153

I've just quickly scanned the Florida Supreme Court opinion. It seems pretty clear that, as the majority decided, the lower court judge (Sauls) misread the law in in respect of the standard to be applied in deciding whether the election result might be changed - his cited cases date from before the underlying statute was changed. He similarly seems to have used the wrong standard in treating the canvassing board as a lower court meriting an "abuse of discretion" standard. (Two of the dissenting judges agreed with the majority on these issues). One key issue is that the statute allows trial courts in a Contest to do anything reasonable ("provide any relief appropriate"). Thus it seems to me that had Judge Sauls done what the higher court is now asking, it probably would have been permitted. Whether the higher court can take things into its own hands and fashion a remedy itself is less clear to me. From a constitutional perspective, the Florida legislature thus seems to have delegated the treatment of Contests to the judicial system, and so I'm not sure there is the same problem that the US Supreme Court saw in the earlier opinion. The dissent by the Chief Judge is pretty vociferous in disagreeing, although his main argument seems to be a "let sleeping dogs lie" one. He basically argues that the court is being improvident. So what happens next? Certainly a mess. The only peaceful outcome I see is if they recount the votes and Bush still wins. Here are some outcomes and my guesses as to probabilities: Successful recount: 80-20 yes Gore wins recount: 60-40 yes Supreme Court intervenes: 90-10 yes Supreme Court overrules Florida Supreme Court: 60-40 no Florida legislature chooses its own electors: 70-30 yes All hell then breaks loose: 100-0 yes <g> Peter