WASHINGTON POST: “Maybe the court should have said, ‘We’re not going to take it, goodbye,’” O’Connor told the Chicago Tribune editorial board, in reference to the controversial Bush v. Gore decision resolving a dispute over the 2000 election in George W. Bush’s favor. “It turned out the election authorities in Florida hadn’t done a real good job there and kind of messed it up. And probably the Supreme Court added to the problem at the end of the day.”
It’s not the first time O’Connor has expressed doubt about siding with the majority in the 5-4 decision. In a 2010 interview, she said she didn’t know if it was right. But, she added, she didn’t worry about it because several recounts found that Bush would have won the state regardless. (Those recounts — the one requested by Al Gore and the one ordered by the state Supreme Court — were limited. Had Gore been able to trigger a statewide recount the result likely would have been different, a 2001 Post analysis found.) She has also linked declining public perception of the Supreme Court to that decision.
In an interview with NPR last month, Supreme Court reporter Jeffrey Toobin said that O’Connor regrets her vote, even if she will never say so… (more)
EDITOR: Of course they shouldn’t have taken the case. The Constitution is explicit that disputes concerning the outcome of a presidential election will be determined by the House of Representatives with each state having a single vote. We know three things:
1) The Republicans would have had more states than the Democrats, so the House would have chosen George W. Bush.
2) A recount by a consortium of four prestigious national newspapers determined that the votes for Bush were as many as reported in the four counties that the Florida Supreme Court had designated.
3) The recount by the consortium determined that had the entire state been recounted that Al Gore would have won Florida and become president.
All of this because of a foolishly designed “butterfly ballot” in Palm Beach County which caused several thousands Jews to mistakenly vote for Pat Buchannan, their nemesis.
