Professor: the Courts should rule for Bush
By KIFLIN TURNER
News Writer
Florida circuit judge N. Sanders Sauls dealt a heavy blow to the Gore camp Monday afternoon, denying Gore's contest of the election results in Florida after the U.S. Supreme Court turned aside a ruling that had favored manual recounts.
The decision came after nearly a week of protests from the Bush camp that the state Supreme Court's decision to allow manual recounts was a misinterpretation of Florida state law.
Richard Garnett, Notre Dame associate professor of law, was invited two weeks ago by one of George W. Bush's policy advisors to be a part of the legal team that prepared and presented briefs to the U.S. Supreme Court. The briefs asked for a federal review of the state decision that would have allowed thousands of votes to be counted after the voting deadline.
"I agreed with the Bush team's claim that the Florida Supreme Court got it wrong — it misread Florida law," said Garnett. "I also think that the Bush folks had a strong argument that the Florida Supreme Court's decision intruded on the prerogatives of the legislature and the prerogatives that are given to the Florida state legislature by federal law."
The Florida Supreme Court cited that the decision for allowing votes after the deadline, as well as recounts, was made to protect and guarantee the rights of all citizens to vote. John Nagle, associate professor of law at Notre Dame agreed that while each individual should have the opportunity to vote in an election, the integrity of the law should not be compromised.
"That part troubled me because I think that as important as the right to vote is, I think it is equally important after an election to make sure that you're not making up the rules for counting the votes afterwards," said Nagle.
Extending the deadline for accepting votes in essence, misconstrued the intent of the law, said Nagle, which could potentially cause a revision of the law.
"The characterization which some have made of the Florida Supreme Court re-writing the law, I think, is potentially a fair one too, because although the line is not clear between interpreting and re-writing, I think it's fair to say that the Florida Supreme Court came kind of dangerously close," said Nagle.
The decision of the Florida Supreme court that delayed official certification of Bush as President was not only viewed as an infringement of the law, but also a biased tactic siding with Al Gore's political agenda.
"The way in which the Florida court described the right to vote, again could lend itself to the interpretation that it was more concerned about getting things right from whatever perspective than following the rules and thus lent itself to the accusations to partisanship," said Nagle.
In an attempt to accurately interpret all of Florida's election laws in regards to the voting deadlines and recounting procedures, Nagle said that the Florida Supreme court has failed to state specifically which, if any federal laws or Constitutional provisions were cited in the Court's decision.
"Because [the Florida Supreme Court] failed to decide that, it was impossible for the U.S. Supreme Court to know whether or not the Florida Supreme Court interpreted those federal laws the right way or not," said Nagle, "and that's why the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the Florida Court's decision and sent it back for the Florida court to get it right this time."
The involvement of the U.S. Supreme Court, and specifically, the Court's decision to delay a ruling until the Florida Supreme Court has outlined cited laws is a wise one, said Garnett.
"Now the decision that came down from the U.S. Supreme Court, I think is just fascinating because frankly I think it's a testimony to the Court's concern about its institutional credibility," said Garnett.
Nagle agreed and said that the Court's decision was vital for the preservation of the law.
"The U.S. Supreme Court decision will make sure that whatever its ultimate decision it has to make will be based on the clear understanding of what happened in Florida rather than the justices having to guess," said Nagle.
All News Stories for Thursday, December 7, 2000
