Preview -- World News Tonight 12/04/00
N E W Y O R K, Dec. 4 -- Good Afternoon.
As we write, we are awaiting the latest court decision — that’s the Florida Circuit Court, ruling on a request for hand recounts in a few counties. We have already had a judgment from the highest court in the land.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled — with an asterisk — in the case of George W. Bush v. The Palm Beach County Canvassing Board, et al., in the matter of whether the Florida Supreme Court was correct in overturning the decision of the Florida secretary of state and ordering the counting of ballots by hand to continue. Here’s the key language in the justices’ seven-page, unanimous decision to send the case back to Florida:
“The judgment of the Supreme Court of Florida is therefore vacated, and the case is remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion. It is so ordered.”
And for the rest of the day, every legal analyst within a country mile was asked to judge this a win for Mr. Bush or Mr. Gore — and not surprisingly, the answer depends on who you listen to.
Certainly the impact of the Supreme Court ruling is manifold (read a few court documents, and you find yourself suddenly choosing the word “manifold”). First, it “vacates” the earlier Florida Supreme Court decision that had been a boon for Vice President Al Gore — the one that allowed an extension of vote certification in Florida. If that decision is ultimately overturned, Bush’s hair-thin margin in Florida would jump from 537 votes to 930 — because those additional votes were tallied after the deadline. And of course, any judgment from the Supreme Court that has even the appearance of favoring one side (Bush) may be politically difficult for the other side (Gore). As we said, the ruling arrived with an asterisk—“a big but,” as our legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin put it: The Florida Supreme Court is now given an opportunity to explain itself — that’s essentially what is meant by the phrase “the case is remanded for further proceedings…”
