Bush v. Gore
Bush v. Gore
Voting Rights & Elections
In this 2000 landmark case, the Center’s brief argued that neither Article II, section 1, clause 2, nor the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, prevented the Florida Supreme Court from conducting recounts along the lines specified in the Florida court’s opinion. That court’s reliance on the state constitution’s provisions regarding the right to vote does not mean that the recount process violates the “manner” of appointment of presidential electors as directed by the legislature. The Framers of the U.S. Constitution, who developed the notion of a written constitution enforced by the judiciary to constrain legislative behavior, fully expected that a state’s constitution would define and constrain the manner of appointing presidential electors. The brief notes that a greater equal protection violation would result if no recount were conducted because the disparities in voting machine technology across the county caused different rates of registering voters.
