ELECTION: Supremes remand decision to SCOFL.

December 4, 2000 1:36 PM

ELECTION: Supremes remand decision to SCOFL. He may have balls, but his *luck* is running low.
posted by baylink (13 comments total)

Perhaps I've been sleeping... the State court favored Bush, no?
posted by baylink at 1:45 PM on December 4, 2000

Not the Supreme Court ruling, at least not at the time. Anyway, as I write this, Judge Sauls has ruled that there is "no credible evidence" that a recount is needed under Florida law... in other words, the Gore team failed to prove its case.

Appellate prospect for the Gore team are dim. Judge Sauls apparently ruled on the sufficiency of the evidence, a factual finding. In order to overturn a factual finding (as opposed to a conclusion of law) the Gore team must prove that the ruling was CLEARLY ERRONEOUS, pretty tough to do before the Florida Supreme Court, who just got publicly spanked and sent to its room without supper.
posted by mikewas at 2:07 PM on December 4, 2000

Here's the CNN story on the Sauls ruling.
posted by mikewas at 2:11 PM on December 4, 2000

Well, if the Florida Supreme Court can come up with a justification under Florida law for extending the deadline (again), then there's still a chance for more manual counting. And then once they do, the SCOTUS could still rule one way or the other, but if this contest doesn't go Gore's way, he may be SOL.
posted by daveadams at 2:43 PM on December 4, 2000

Oh, and here's a more permanent (and detailed) story on the Sauls ruling.
posted by daveadams at 2:43 PM on December 4, 2000

Ted Rall has already figured it all out ahead of time.

The panel with Bush Sr. had me clutching my sides.
posted by Skot at 2:57 PM on December 4, 2000

The big thing is that this was the last forum in which Gore, if he got a favorable count after winning the judgment, could plausibly assert that he was the real winner and Bush, if he tried to get direct appointments of the Electors by the Florida legislature, look like an anti-democratic seizer of power.

Now, even if Gore gets relief from the Florida Supreme Court and a recount is ordered, or if one of the long-shots pending in Florida courts (like the Seminole County case against absentees, or the new possible tactic to say that the 10-day absentee votes were not legal -- no cite, sorry, just heard about from a friend) ... he can go ahead with the legislative process to get the Electors anyway, and not look so bad.
posted by MattD at 3:04 PM on December 4, 2000

Could someone explain to me, cause I missed it, who Sauls is, and what jurisdiction he had to subpoena all them damned ballots in the first place?
posted by baylink at 6:05 PM on December 4, 2000

Sauls was a Judge of a Circuit Court in Florida, where Gore's challenge of the certification went to. His authority to subpoena the ballots came with the case.

He didn't choose the case. It chose him. :-P
posted by da5id at 7:35 PM on December 4, 2000

He's a circuit court judge in Leon County, which is where Talahassee is. The idea is that you try cases involving the executive branch in Leon County, cause that's where the Executive branch in FL is - and Kathleen Harris is of course in the Executive branch. So Gore brought the case, Bush and Harris responded and several others intervened. Motions were made last week in preparation for the hearing this weekend, and he arranged for all the ballots to be sent up in case he determined to do a) a judicial count of the contested ballots, or b) a judicial count of all the ballots.
posted by mikel at 7:39 PM on December 4, 2000

We need Dennis Miller on play-by-play here.

"We haven't seen a change of venue like this since Grendel came to Heorot!"
posted by dhartung at 9:09 PM on December 4, 2000

Got it. And yeah, Dan, that's an excellent idea.

<uncontrollable snickering>
posted by baylink at 9:52 AM on December 5, 2000

Here is that Sauls decision.

I found particularly amusing
In this case, there is no credible statistical evidence and no other competent substantial evidence to establish by a preponderance a reasonable probability that the results of the statewide election in the state of Florida would be different from the result which has been certified by the state elections canvassing commission.

I guess that the judge is a statistician. Either that, or the Gore legal team failed to get the six independent analyses which do in fact show eaxctly that into the record... and he deserves to lose.
posted by baylink at 2:18 PM on December 5, 2000