Bush v. Gore Decided By U.S. Supreme Court (2000)
On December 12, 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98 (2000), by the narrowest margin of votes 5-4, and overruled the Florida Supreme Court by stopping the recount of Florida ballots in the 2000 presidential election. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision effectively made Bush the winner in Florida – and for the presidency. And Bush defeated Gore for president by one of the narrowest margins in U.S. history.
The 2000 presidential election between Republican, George W. Bush, and Democrat, Al Gore, was likely the closest election in U.S. history. By the end of the 2000 presidential election, Bush and Gore were nearly deadlocked across the U.S. with electoral votes. Whoever won Florida would win the presidency – and there were many districts in Florida with extremely close election results.
On November 8, 2000, the Florida Division of Elections held that Bush won Florida by 1,784 votes out of the millions cast. In short, Bush edged out Gore by less than .5% of all the votes with approximately 48.8% versus Gore’s estimate of 48.3%. However, because the results were so close and less than .5% Florida law required an automatic machine recount of the election. Two days later, the machine recount found that Bush won by even less – 327 votes or around .01%. There were also questioned “undervotes” in certain Florida counties. As such, Gore requested manual recounts in four counties, including Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, and Volusia.
The four counties granted Gore’s request under Florida law and began the manual recounts. However, Florida law also required Florida counties to certify their election results to the Florida Secretary of State within seven days of the election. Many counties did not believe they could conduct the recount in enough time to submit their results to the Florida Secretary of State, Katherine Harris. The issue was quickly filed for the Florida Circuit Court to decide.
The Florida Circuit Court held that the seven-day deadline was mandatory, but that the counties could amend their returns on later dates. The court held that the Florida Secretary of State could use discretion in whether to allow amended returns across Florida.
Four counties submitted statements to the Secretary Harris about why they needed to file late but Harris determined that no extension would be allowed. Harris then declared that Bush was the winner in Florida, and Al Gore appealed.
The Florida Supreme Court heard Gore’s appeal and found in his favor. The Florida Supreme Court, by a 4-3 vote, ordered a statewide manual recount of the election results. Bush appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and it took the appeal.
On this day, December 12, 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court overruled the Florida Supreme Court by a 5-4 vote in its decision of Bush v. Gore. The U.S. Supreme Court ordered Florida to stop the manual recount and held that the Florida Supreme Court violated the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection clause by ordering the manual recount, violated U.S. Constitution Article II, §1, cl.2 by misapplying Florida election law, and held that there was not enough time under Florida election law to consider other methods to resolve the counting of ballots.
The four dissenting justices were not pleased with the results. For example, Justice Stevens wrote a very powerful dissent and said: “Preventing the recount from being completed will inevitably cast a cloud on the legitimacy of the election. * * * (T)he Florida court's ruling reflects the basic principle, inherent in our Constitution and our democracy, that every legal vote should be counted.” Justice Stevens further stated:
Judges, like everyone else, sometimes act on instinct. That is inevitable and, as I said at the outset, often unobjectionable, within limits. But a close election is sure to inflame partisan passions and skew judgment in a partisan direction. That makes it all the more important for judges to hesitate, to question their own motives, and to make sure that their judgments have a solid basis in the law before they act. That may be a lot to expect. But if there is any court of which we should expect it, it is the United States Supreme Court. In Bush v. Gore, a majority of the Court, prompted by a general and unjustified sense that something needed to be done, plunged in, splintered along ideological lines, and played a prominent role in deciding the election. This was not a triumph for the rule of law.”
Bill Clinton stated in his autobiography My Life that, “If Gore had been ahead in the vote count and Bush behind, there's not a doubt in my mind that the same Supreme Court would have voted 9 to 0 to [re]count the vote and I would have supported the decision * * * Bush v. Gore will go down in history as one of the worst decisions the Supreme Court ever made, along with the Dred Scott case.”