On Fri, 17 Nov 2000, Nathan Newman wrote:
> > Headline: Judge supports rejecting late votes
> >
> > Hello, President Bush.
>
> Not quite yet. This is rejecting late votes in state certification.
> Most hand recounts in the past in the state have happened AFTER
> certification and have overturned the official certification results
So far things seem to be following the legal path you predicated at the beginning of the week, namely that certification was simply a scary-looking ruse, and that everything will be actually be decided in the Florida Supreme Court. And your view that the Florida Supreme Court is an activist court and foursquare for recounts seems to be pretty universally held, now that everyone else has realized where things were heading. I have one question, though. If the Gore team were appealing the law that the Secretary of State can stop the counting, and saying that was in cnflict with the Florida constitution as expressed and made clear in other laws, then it would all make sense to me. Or if they based their case on the voter discrimination events you emphasized in your arguments. But are they? My impression was that their appeal is entirely based on the idea that the Secretary of State abused her discretion as specified by the existing law and Judge Terry's ruling, which seems like a stretch to me. Is there some way that an activist court can reach around that, and say, for example, that the law "obviously" presumes other laws being complied with even if it doesn't specify them? I'd be interested in how you think the court will justify what seems the obviously just decision, to include the hand counts. Or is it just because this court, when faced with such a situation, usually does the right thing, and can be counted on producing a justification? In which case, would the Bush camp have any luck pleading that the time limits for filing objections were unfair, and the whole state ought to be hand counted, even thought there's no provision for it under Florida law?
Michael
__________________________________________________________________________ Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com