December
8, 2000
The Florida Supreme Court Does It Again
By Tom Bevan
It's simply hard to believe. After being dealt another legal
blow earlier this afternoon with the dismissal of cases in Seminole
and Martin counties, Al Gore's candidacy was rescued from the
brink of termination by the Florida Supreme Court this evening.
In a 4-3 ruling, the Court not only ordered a manual recount of
the 9,000 Miami-Dade undervotes but also awarded the Vice President
additional votes not included in the certification, thus slicing
Governor Bush's lead to a meager 154 votes.
It will be interesting to sift through the legal justification
given by Justices Pariente, Quince, Anstead and Lewis to allow
such recounts to begin. Perhaps more interesting will be the effect
of the blistering dissent written by Chief Justice Wells and Justice
Harding (with Justice Shaw supporting Harding's dissent) which
reads, in part, "I could not more strongly disagree with
their [majority] decision to reverse the trial court and prolong
this judicial process. I also believe that the majority's decision
cannot withstand the scrutiny which will certainly immediately
follow under the U.S. Constitution."
In overturning Judge Sauls' decision, the Florida Supreme Court
has truly demonstrated a willingness to ignore statutory law,
legal precedent, and the discretion of the county canvassing boards
and Judge Sauls. The court's self appointed omnipotence comes
not just from "interpretation" of Florida law, but from
their deeply held desire to rewrite the law to resolve
what they see as "conflict" and "unfairness."
It would be easy to simply attack the Florida Supreme Court as
a bunch of partisan hacks out to do Al Gore's bidding. In fact,
there is some truth to that notion - the court does have unquestionable
Democrat loyalties. Furthermore, it is not debatable that the
Florida Supreme Court has provided Gore with two favorable legal
rulings that, in effect, rewrote election law to his advantage.
But to dismiss these rulings as strictly partisan would miss
the truly significant issue we are watching unfold before our
eyes: the corrosive nature of liberal judicial activism. The Justices
of the Florida Supreme Court - in particular the four who wrote
the majority opinion in this case - believe their role in the
legal system is to create new laws, not to adjudicate existing
ones. They simply do not have the capacity, emotionally or otherwise,
to restrain themselves from running roughshod over the laws passed
by the duly elected representatives of the state of Florida.
One can only hope that the U.S. Supreme Court was watching this
evening and is now shaking its collective head. On the surface
it seems that the Florida Supreme Court justices, already admonished
for writing a legal opinion with the clarity of a hyperactive
thirteen year old, has just done it again. Let's hope the justices
on the Adult Supreme Court are warming up their pens to write
a scathing refutation of the Florida Supreme Court's opinion and
right this terrible wrong.
Tom Bevan writes for RealClearPolitics
