The Votes That Counted: How the Court Decided the 2000 Presidential Election - Softcover

Gillman, Howard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226294080 ISBN 13: 9780226294087

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2003

Synopsis

The dramatic struggle over the outcome of the 2000 presidential election presented judges with an extraordinary political challenge, as well as a historic political temptation. In The Votes That Counted Howard Gillman offers a comprehensive yet critical assessment of how well courts coped with the competing expectations for impartial justice and favorable partisan results.

Lively and authoritative, the book documents how the participants, the press, the academic community, and the public responded during these tension-filled thirty-six days. Gillman also provides a serious yet accessible overview of the legal strategies and debates-from briefs and oral arguments to final decisions. However, in explaining the behavior of courts, he moves beyond an analysis of law to also take into account the influences of partisanship, judicial ideology, and broader political and historical contexts.

Appropriately, Gillman pays special attention to the judges whose behavior generated the most controversy—the battling justices of the Florida and United States Supreme Courts. After carefully reviewing the arguments for and against their decisions, he concludes that the five justices behind the Bush v. Gore decision acted outside what should be considered the acceptable boundaries of judicial power. Gillman ends with an analysis of why they chose such an unprecedented course of action and an assessment of whether their partisan intervention will have any lasting effect on the Supreme Court's reputation and authority.

About this title

About the Author

Howard Gillman is a professor of political science and law at the University of Southern California. He is the author of The Constitution Besieged, winner of the Pritchett Award for best book in public law, and editor (with Cornell Clayton) of Supreme Court Decision-Making, also published by the University of Chicago Press.

From the Back Cover

The struggle over the outcome of the 2000 presidential election inspired countless books, most of them hasty political critiques. However, with this book, Howard Gillman had different aims from the beginning: to create a lasting, authoritative document of the 36 days between the election and its legal resolution, to offer an accessible overview of the legal strategies and debates, and to assess the influence of politics and law on the judges who shaped the outcome of this historical controversy.

From the Inside Flap

The struggle over the outcome of the 2000 presidential election inspired countless books, most of them hasty political critiques. However, with this book, Howard Gillman had different aims from the beginning: to create a lasting, authoritative document of the 36 days between the election and its legal resolution, to offer an accessible overview of the legal strategies and debates, and to assess the influence of politics and law on the judges who shaped the outcome of this historical controversy.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226294080
• ISBN 13: 9780226294087
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 325