IP: Review of two new books on the Supreme Court's Bush vs. Gore ruling

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

>Date: Wed, 04 Jul 2001 01:45:44 -0700
>From: "Robert J. Berger" <rberger@ultradevices.com>
>
>A very interesting article!
>http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2001/07/04/dershowitz/index.html
>
>Against the law
>
>Two new books make it clear that the Supreme Court's notorious Bush
>vs.  Gore ruling wasn't as bad as it seemed at the time. It was worse.
>
>- - - - - - - - - - - -
>By Gary Kamiya
>
>July 4, 2001 | The Supreme Court's ruling in Bush vs. Gore, which
>stopped the Florida recount and handed the presidency to George
>W. Bush, was one of most controversial rulings in the court's
>history. It inspired an unprecedented flood of outrage: In print and
>in conversation, in chat rooms and classrooms, law professors,
>journalists and ordinary citizens alike expressed shock, disbelief and
>deep anger at the decision. As one might expect, the reaction to the
>ruling tended (though by no means absolutely) to break down along
>partisan lines, but there was a notable asymmetry: Outside the noisy
>precincts of braying-head TV commentators, the court's supporters were
>considerably less outspoken -- and assured -- than its critics.
>
>The implicit reasoning of those who backed the decision seemed to be
>"It wasn't pretty, but it had to be done" -- not a position easy to
>defend publicly.  (And since the outcome was both favorable to their
>side and irreversible, arguments were unnecessary anyway.) The
>critics, for their part, were convinced that the nation's highest
>judicial body, whose members are answerable to no one, had pulled off
>a judicial coup d'état, its conservative majority, on the thinnest of
>legal pretexts, arrogantly handing the election to the candidate it
>preferred -- in the process possibly nullifying the votes of 50
>million Americans.
>
><snip>
>--
>Robert J. Berger
>UltraDevices, Inc.
>257 Castro Street, Suite 223 Mt. View CA. 94041
>Voice: 408-882-4755 Fax: 408-490-2868
>Email: rberger@ultradevices.com  http://www.ultradevices.com



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