Case choice: Bush v. Gore
Case style: Equal Protection Clause
Citation: Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98 (2000),
Bush v. Gore was a case that hot its decision in the United States Supreme Court. The case settled a done recount a dispute between the Florida 2000 presidential elections. The ruling of this case was made on December 12, 2000.
Case
Factual Background
Bush v Gore case is a case that took place on December 12, 2000. Supreme Court has reversed the Florida Supreme Court request for selective ballots and manual recount for the united state presidential results. In November 2000, the same year, the presidential election was very close that no one could predict the winner for a whole month. The presidential contestants were Texas Governor George Bush and Vice president Al Gore. In the national tally, Bush gathered by 246 electoral votes while gore got 260 votes. For a candidate to be declared the winner of the election, they had to get more than 270 votes. From the look of things, none of the candidates had gathered the required votes. However, Florida had hanging votes, which both the contestant depended on to achieve the required threshold. According to the count, Bush led Florida by 1784 votes. The law was used to recount Florida’s votes expected that the close elections narrowed bush’s lead. As required in the state law, Gore went to court and requested hand recounts in the four heavily democrats counties. Base on this request, not all the counties managed to do the manual recounting within the required legal deadline. The deadline passed, and Florida’s secretary of state declared that Mr. Bush, the winner of the Florida votes, made bush the winner of the presidential election. After this announcement, Gore officially contested the Florida election results. The Florida Supreme Court noted that the vote count accuracy is the most important thing in a democracy than the finality. Due to this, the court ordered a fresh statewide manual recount. This was into the law of Florida, and neither Bush nor Gore asked for this. This was a decision that was just arrived in court when they felt that the matter had been handled unfairly.
Bush rushed to the United States Supreme Court and asked them to reverse the Florida order. The main question put forward to the Supreme Court was whether the Florida Supreme Court exceeded its authority by ordering a statewide manual recount of votes. Bush put forwards an argument that taking a statewide manual recount would violate the United States constitutional, specifically the fourteenth amendment rule. The fourteenth amendment states that no state shall deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the law. Since the counties were using different standards to decide whose votes would be recounted, it would be unfair for the state to order any possible recounting in Florida. Bush augured that the ruling by Florida Supreme Court was not treating its citizen equally. He further added that there was no uniform standard for recounting of votes. As stated in the Florida court, the main standard was that the counting of votes would occur if it clear that there was a mismatch in the original counting. Gore pointed out that there were five times as many undervotes in the counties than in the optical machines. In this regard, he argues that the recount would put more uniform compared to the standard used during Election Day.
The federal law required that if there is any controversy, the lectors’ selection must be steeled by December 12. On that same day, the Supreme Court agreed with the bush and gave its ruing.
Ruling:
Based on this, the United States Supreme court presented a pre-Curum Opinion and ruled that the manual recount order violated the Equal protection Clouse found on the fourteenth amendment. The ruling was made by 7-2 votes meaning that out of the 9 seating, judges 7 agreed that indeed the law was violated while 2 gave their dissenting opinion. The primary author of the opinion was Kennedy. To wring this opinion, he also decided to include Souter, brayer, and Stevens in the majority without consulting them. Stephen demanded that his name be removed from the opinion while Kennedy agreed to be included, but only after Stephen’s name has been pulled out of the agreement. Breyer also objected in private, but he agreed to be left as part of the majority. The later interview showed that Breyer and Souter were trying to request Kennedy to join them rather than accept a violation of equal protection law.
The Supreme Court ruled that the equal protection guarantees an individual that their ballots cannot be devalued after the national counts had taken place. Although the recount was seen as fair theory, it was considered a very unfair practice. As weighed by the Florida court, the record suggested that there is a direct standard used to determine the winner of the election. This may be the case, but their jurisdiction ended at determining the time and the nature of the voting patterns. Basing argued that the Florida court’s recount order violated the Equal protection Close of the fourteenth amendment simply because Florida did not have any statewide vote court system. Every county was determined where given the ballot was accepted one. Two voters could have identically marked their ballots, but the voting in one county could have been counted, while a different would be rejected simply because of manual standards used.
On the other hand, Gore presents an argument that indeed the statewide standards used were sufficient to determine the winner of Florida. Since Florida was a bone of contention, any action that would give him justice was okay. He did not look at the law but looked at his own interest. Moreover, he argued that the consequences of ruling Florida very unconstitutional simply because it treated its voter’s very different compared to the other states. He stated that a voter in the other county had more chance of having their votes undercount than a voter in the optical scanner. In case bush wins, then every state will have the same way of recording votes.
There was not a concurring opinion.
This case was based on the argument based on the fourteenth amendment, and as there was no concurring option. The al the judges ruled based on the fourteenth amendment law. The case gave bush victory over Gore. The wins basically come from Florida since there was not a manual recount of votes.
Importance of the case
This case is critical to the United States as a county for several reasons. The first reason is that obedience to the rule of law. Based on the ruling done I the Florida Supreme Court, the recount of votes would be a violation of the United States consultation. The final ruling done in the USA Supreme Court indicated that despite the circumstance of the issue, the rule of law must be respected. The supreme counted noted that while ruling in favor of fairness, the Florida court overstepped its jurisdiction and violated the fourteenth amendment. Due to this, they had to correct the mistake. The case also looks at some of the evil and immoral decisions made by some court in the name of offering justice and fairness to an individual. A different section of the ruling demonstrates how critical and accountability can play an impotent role in national politics. Although your position is political, everyone is under the rule of law. In this case, some of the lessons to learn are justice can be selectively applied depending on the case’s situation. Finally, the case is a clear indication that the United States has set a good example in the constitution’s obedience. The United States has continuously had a transparent election that allows every candidate time to evaluate and ascertain their win or they’re loose.