By Richard A. Posner
The 2000 Presidential election led to a collision of heritage, legislation, and the courts. It produced a impasse that dragged out the end result for over a month, and consequences--real and imagined--that promise to tug on for years. within the first in-depth examine of the election and its litigious aftermath, pass judgement on Posner surveys the historical past and conception of yank electoral legislation and perform, analyzes which Presidential candidate ''really'' gained the preferred vote in Florida, surveys the litigation that ensued, evaluates the courts, the legal professionals, and the commentators, and ends with a blueprint for reforming our Presidential electoral practices.
The ebook begins with an outline of the electoral approach, together with its heritage and guiding theories. It appears to be like subsequent on the Florida election itself, exploring which candidate ''really'' gained and no matter if this is often even a significant query. the focal point then shifts to the advanced litigation, either kingdom and federal, provoked by means of the photograph end. at the foundation of the pragmatic jurisprudence that pass judgement on Posner has articulated and defended in his earlier writings, this publication bargains an alternate justification for the ideal Court's determination in Bush v. Gore whereas praising the court docket for keeping off the chaotic results of an unresolved deadlock.
Posner additionally evaluates the functionality of the attorneys who performed the post-election litigation and of the lecturers who commented at the unfolding drama. He argues that neither Gore's nor Bush's legal professionals blundered heavily, yet that the response of the felony professoriat to the litigation uncovered severe flaws within the educational perform of constitutional legislation. whereas rejecting such radical strikes as abolishing the Electoral university or making a nationwide poll, Posner concludes with an in depth plan of possible reforms designed to prevent a repetition of the 2000 election fiasco.
Lawyers, political scientists, pundits, and politicians are ready to listen to what pass judgement on Posner has to assert. yet this ebook is written for and may be welcomed via all who have been riveted through the hot hindrance of presidential succession.
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Extra resources for Breaking the Deadlock: The 2000 Election, the Constitution, and the Courts
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Article I, section 3, provided that the Senators from each state would be appointed by the state’s legislature. This method of appointing Senators reflected (at a time when states were much more important than they have become) a kind of ambassadorial conception of a Senator. 29 The state legislatures were authorized to fix the time, place, and manner of choosing Senators and Representatives, though Congress was authorized to alter those regulations—except for the place of choosing Senators, which would be the state legislature itself.
The deadlock in the Electoral College had been caused by the fact that Article II of the Constitution, while giving each elector two votes, did not provide for the electors to vote separately for President and Vice President. The theory was that the best man would come in first and become President and the second-best man would come in second and become Vice President. But if the electors thought alike on who should be President 46. Keyssar, Right to Vote, at 32–33, 38; Williamson, American Suffrage, at 277–278; Testi, “Construction and Deconstruction,” at 388.
24. John Mueller, “Democracy and Ralph’s Pretty Good Grocery: Elections, Equality, and the Minimal Human Being,” 36 American Journal of Political Science 983 (1992). See also Will Kymlicka and Wayne Norman, “Return of the Citizen: A Survey of Recent Work on Citizenship Theory,” 104 Ethics 352, 361–362, 369 (1994). —26— The Road to Florida 2000 —– market economic systems, and an autocrat generally wants his country to be wealthy in order to keep his subjects happy, finance an effective security apparatus, and become wealthy himself without taking such a large proportion of national wealth that he causes serious unrest.