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If ever a set of state supreme court justices played to the media, it was the Florida Supreme Court when its seven members attempted to appear unbiased, interested in the law, and genuinely in search of a fair solution. A scant thirty (30) hours after adjourning to deliberate and to consider all the legal issues involved, the Florida Supreme Court came forth with a unanimous decision that the vote recounts in three heavily Democratic counties would continue. There was not one dissenting opinion, not one opinion on the conflicting Florida statutes. Even the United States Supreme Court does better than that. Further, the Florida Supreme Court documented a reprimand against Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, whose decision was based upon the written laws of the State of Florida, and upheld by Florida Circuit Court Judge Terry Lewis. Then, this black-robed set of political hacks proceeded to set their own arbitrary date which is not supported by Florida state law, i.e., 5:00 p.m. Sunday if the Secretary of State's office is open, and 9:00 a.m. Monday should her office be closed on Sunday, as the date by which the votes shall be submitted to the office of the Secretary of State. So much for legislative authority, so much for impartiality, and so much for justice in Florida. A unanimous decision, an arbitrary decision, a decision favoring the Democratic candidate, and one that did not speak to the "dimpled ballot" issue but left that decision up to the election boards of the three heavily Democratic counties, and this is supposed to be considered an impartial decision by the Florida Supreme Court? They all belong at Disneyland in Mickey Mouse suits! If Al Gore now becomes the president of the United States, it will be because Florida does not have impartial and fair justices in its highest court, but a bunch of toadies to the Democratic party. You can just bet your Disney World tee shirt that at least one of them expects an Al Gore appointment to the United States Supreme Court if he wins based on this gross miscarriage of justice and election-tilting. There will always be the cloud of doubt about the discarded, lost or rejected ballots of the military. A friend of mine suggested we should have the lower half of Florida sawed off and towed to Cuba with chains attached to battleships. Great idea, but first we have to get seven justices to go to Miami when the sawing begins. After Watergate, it appeared that the ruling junta in the United States was the liberal media (which is comprised of most major newspapers, the television industry, and CNN which is in a despicable class of its own). After Election 2000, it may well be that the media will have been replaced by the judiciary as the ruling junta. After all, the United States Supreme Court has been trying to rewrite the Constitution for years. Now we have the Florida Supreme Court trying to toss an election and select the next president. So much for the Constitution, so much for the federal republic. The upside of this is, Al Gore may inherit a lot more than he wished for. Unemployment is showing its first increase in months, and at holiday season, traditionally a time for lowest unemployment. More and more unions are ignoring orders from the courts without penalty. The stock market is long overdue for a major adjustment downward. The automobile industry is in deep financial trouble, as are the airlines. And those are just the larger problems. There is a world outside the boundaries of the United States, and it's a very troubled world. It's also a world that the judiciary in the U.S. cannot handle. Perhaps the justices have forgotten there is such a thing as poetic justice, and it may be about to strike. Join the conversation about the election... © Dorothy Anne Seese, 2000
See our latest columns: View expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Political USA.
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