|
U.S. Presidential Election In U.S. Supreme Court's Hands
by Olivier Knox
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The fate of the tangled U.S. presidential election was in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court following a momentous hearing here Monday but the nine justices were not expected to issue their ruling until Tuesday at the earliest.
The country's highest court heard over 90 minutes of oral arguments Monday from lawyers for Republican George W. Bush and his Democratic rival Al Gore before retiring to deliberate.
Court spokeswoman Kathleen Arburg told reporters later that "the indications are that an opinion is not likely tonight and it is safe for you to go home," adding journalists should return at 9 a.m. (1400 GMT) Tuesday.
At issue is whether or not the court should allow manual recounts of Florida's disputed presidential ballots. Those recounts were ordered by the Florida Supreme Court Friday but the next day the U.S. Supreme Court ordered them suspended pending Monday's hearing on the issue.
Neither candidate can prevail without Florida's decisive 25 votes in the Electoral College, which will pick the 43rd U.S. president on December 18th.
Bush, the Texas governor, enjoys a scant 537-vote edge out of more than six million ballots cast 34 days ago in the November 7th election to succeed President Bill Clinton. Gore says hand recounts would show he won Florida.
The two presidential rivals kept low profiles as they awaited the decision, the former declaring during a brief appearance in Austin, Texas, that he felt "cautiously optimistic" and the latter warily watching events unfold from his official residence here.
But while a decision to scrap recounts is likely to doom Gore's chances, allowing them leaves him to face daunting obstacles he must overcome before he can move into the White House on January 20th.
One major hurdle is the Republican-held Florida Legislature, which was holding a special session aimed at appointing a pro-Bush slate of electors, which could make hand tallies moot.
As they bombarded the two lawyers with questions, the justices focused on a few key issues: whether the case they are being called upon to decide is a federal issue; did the Florida Supreme Court overstepped its bounds in ordering hand tallies; and what standards should be applied in a recount.
"Where's the federal question here?" Justice Anthony Kennedy asked Bush attorney Ted Olson minutes into the session.
Lambasting a "voter intent" criterion for counting votes, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor at one point declared: "Why isn't the standard the one that voters are instructed to follow, for goodness sake? I mean, it couldn't be clearer."
Under the "intent" standard, some officials were counting now-infamous "dimpled chads" - which instructions direct voters to detach completely from the ballot - as votes.
Gore lawyer David Boies countered that, under Florida law, "even if they don't do what they're told, that's supposed to be counted."
Kennedy and O’Connor were widely seen as the swing votes on the court, historically the final arbiter on volatile issues including the Watergate scandal that brought down ex-president Richard Nixon; abortion; and segregation.
The high court split 5-4 along ideological lines Saturday to halt hand recounts ordered a day earlier by the Florida Supreme Court, which said some 40,000 ballots on which machines had failed to discern a vote for president must be reconsidered.
After the session, Boies refused to speculate as to the outcome, telling NBC television that "I've been proved wrong" every time he has made a prediction.
Olson, who argued Bush's case, said afterward that the justices had seemed "very concerned" about the absence of uniform standards.
Experts said the court could again split 5-4 - mirroring the national chasm over the election - overruling the Florida Supreme Court and severing Gore's final lifeline to the White House.
Writing in support of Saturday's decision to halt hand recounts, the justice Bush has named as his favorite, Antonin Scalia, wrote: "A majority of the court ... believe that the petitioner [Bush] has a substantial probability of success."
Outside the stately marble building, far from the fine-tuned legal arguments, about 2,000 protesters from the competing camps were locked in a high-decibel shouting match.
Meanwhile, committees of Florida's Republican-held legislature voted to have the state lawmakers name a slate of electors to ensure Bush is declared the winner. The full House was due to vote on Tuesday, and the Senate could then vote the next day.
Florida's highest court meanwhile announced it had upheld and - on the U.S. Supreme Court's instructions - clarified a November decision ordering some hand recounts be included in certified results, shaving nearly 400 votes from Bush's lead.
The U.S. justices had wanted clarification on what the state court had based its decision on, concerned that it may have overreached its mandate and written new legislation.
"Pursuant to the instructions of the United States Supreme Court, this court has clarified that its earlier decision is based on long-standing rules of statutory construction," court spokesman Craig Waters told reporters.
|
