"New documents show how Sandra Day O'Connor helped George W. Bush win the 2000 election"

[GPV]

CNN
—
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor provided the early framework that steered the outcome in the dispute over the 2000 presidential election and ensured George W. Bush would win the White House over Al Gore, Supreme Court documents released on Tuesday show.

Memos found in the newly opened files of the late Justice John Paul Stevens offer a first-ever view of the behind-the-scenes negotiations on Bush v. Gore at the court. They also demonstrate the tension among the nine justices being asked to decide a presidential election on short deadlines.

The documents opened at the Library of Congress help reveal how the now-retired O’Connor, the first woman on the high court and a justice steeped in politics from her early days in the Arizona legislature, partnered with Justice Anthony Kennedy, effectively squeezing out an argument advanced by then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

The strong hand of O’Connor, who was at the ideological center of the court in this era, is not wholly surprising. O’Connor was also known for trying to get out ahead of deliberations, and her four-page memo was circulated to colleagues even before oral arguments. Her move may have guaranteed that she and Kennedy had the greatest influence on the final “per curiam” opinion that spoke for a five-justice majority.

That final 5-4 Bush v. Gore decision stopped county recounts for Florida’s decisive presidential electors and gave then-Texas Gov. Bush the victory over then-Vice President Gore.

The five conservative justices (O’Connor, Kennedy, Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas) sided with Bush. The four liberal justices (Stevens, with David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer) aligned with Gore and dissented angrily.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/02/politics/bush-gore-oconnor-supreme-court-2000/index.html

[Boomerproud]

1. This confirms what I've been told and believed for 23 years.

If I didn't have to control my emotions I would be very angry right now but I have to walk into work like I know nothing.

[GPV]

3. I've got a couple hours to cool down. The only silver lining from that fateful decision was we

got DU out of it.

[Buns_of_Fire]

2. IIRC, they also took pains to state that their decision

was NOT to be used as a precedent. Not that the current court is all that concerned with precedents in the first place (unless Alito has something from Hammurabi's Code that he wants to toss in).

[GPV]

4. The current court??? Ppphhhhbbbttttt! Most of them care only about the green.

[jaxexpat]

9. The crew of six. They've overdosed on hubris and Alito.

Blinded by Thomas' insufferable excesses, they've lost sight to the extent they can't even see how "green laden" they too have become. Their intellectual acumen withdrawn in fear of exposure, their autonomic functions dominate, all solely focused on placating the worst nature of the worst of them.

[moniss]

7. You are correct

and they have used it for precedent ever since. They shouldn't have taken the case to begin with.

[agingdem]

8. Trump knew months before the 2020 election he was going to lose...

his callous disregard for human life: his monstrously botched pandemic response, 300,000 covid deaths..and Trump chaos fatigue....so he and his enablers set about "fixing" the election..Bill Barr was publicly questioning the validity of voting by mail, Louis DeJoy was slowing the mail, removing mailboxes and trashing mail sorting apparatus, and Trump was "warning" his rally goers the only way he could lose is if Biden rigged the election..Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, and Rudy Giuliani knew early election night results would temporarily favor Trump and they told him to to declare victory and demand the vote count stop, confident a Biden challenge would go to the Trump's Supreme Court...and because of Bush v Gore, the Court would throw the election to Trump...

[jaxexpat]

10. I think you have it in a nutshell, there, agingdem.

Stupidly simple, really, it's embarrassing for those susceptible to humiliation. Unfortunately, so few of them are.

[chia]

13. +1,000,000

[LisaM]

5. Every SCOTUS disaster since has stemmed from that decision.

That includes outcomes that led directly to Trump's election (dismantling the VRA and Citizens United).

Sandra Day O'Connor was seen the night of the election saying that a potential Gore victory would be "terrible", because she wanted to retire. She was one of at least three conservative judges who should have recused themselves because of conflicts of interest.

[GPV]

6. It takes integrity to recuse oneself.

[bedazzled]

11. Had to sit through a video she did about the wonders of American Justice

When I did jury duty in Palm Beach County a few years ago. Made me want to hurl. She should rot in hell.

[Roy Rolling]

12. The Brooks Brothers Riots

Look it up. Fake protests, paid Republican employee protestors, fake news.

Republicans are a propaganda party disguised as a legitimate representative of their constituents.

[NNadir]

14. And that began the process of delegitimizing the court, putting thugs like Grand Inquisitor Alito...

...in place, resulting in the defacto rejection of the Constitutional prohibition of a State religion.

[Mr. Sparkle]

15. A little unnoticed side effect of this decision, it allowed the conservative justices to maintain

the majority on the court, for at least the next 2 decades.

[GreenWave]

16. What we need to know are the massive voter purges.

They did not just happen in Florida. Were they designed to favor the GOP?

[mopinko]

19. absolutely. another line of attack gore left on the table.

[GoreWon2000]

22. Don't blame Gore for what the anti-democracy Bush's did

Having spent 15 years volunteering on election campaigns when I lived in Florida, Jeb and Harris should've been prosecuted for their Florida "felon purge" and many other violations of Florida law in order to thwart the will of the people and install W. W. was a coward who couldn't handle that he wasn't the choice of the voters. He used illegal means to thwart the will of the people.

[mopinko]

23. and shd have had their hides nailed to the barn wall for it.

[uponit7771]

20. THIS !!!! ☝🏾☝🏾☝🏾

[JHB]

17. If you haven't already, you can add "judicial activism" to the list...

... of "every accusation is a confession."

[mopinko]

18. i disagree w this take. she headed off an even worse ruling by rehnquist.

he was ready to go full bore independent state legislator theory. if that had happened, 2020 could have come out differently.
gore’s case was flawed, it was known at the time. his cherry picking of dem counties, instead of asking for a statewide recount was the wedge they needed. and a statewide recount would likely have given it to him.

what she did here was her s.o.p. she was pivotal, and she knew it, and she worked it. this take seems to lay the whole mess on o’connor, and let the boys off the hook.
quelle surprise.

[GoreWon2000]

21. There's no sugar coating O'Connor's anti-democracy behavior with Bush vs Gore!

There's no sugar coating O'Connor's anti-democracy behavior with Bush vs Gore. As someone who spent 15 years volunteering on election campaigns when I lived in Florida, the thing that jumped out at me about this CNN reporting was how totally ignorant O'Connor was concerning Florida election law. She didn't know Florida election law which clearly required that the uncounted votes be counted and she was determined to install W. in the White House no matter what so that she could retire and have W. appoint her SCOTUS successor.