Bush Bite #17 - 30 Sep 2004
Scalia the Kingmaker
Still think that the Supreme Court did the right thing by stepping into the Florida election mess in 2000? Try this one on for size.
On Saturday, September 9, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia halted the manual counting of ballots in Florida under Bush's request by declaring that continued counting could "threaten irreparable harm to petitioner [Bush]...by casting a cloud upon what he claims to be the legitimacy of his election."
In other words, Scalia was afraid that if all the votes were counted, they might do irreparable damage to George W. Bush by showing that he was not actually elected. To be sure, Bush might not have been given the presidency if the ballots were allowed to show that Gore won Florida: irreparable harm indeed! To prevent this horrid possibility, Scalia stopped the counting.
And with that justification, Scalia knocked democracy out cold.
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