If those five judges had been stripped of their positions and prosecuted as traitors -- as they should have been -- the country would be much better off today. But then, I'd have had Bush and Cheney beheaded and their heads placed on pikes atop the Capitol steps, too.

So, I understand mine might be a minority opinion in this case.

Historians will look back at that and say the same thing. We decades away from that now. And John Roberts is worse than Rehnquist.

Like it or not, Bush's 2nd term was legit.

We have no one to blame but ourselves for that.

It was a bad decision by everyone I think.
You have "states rights" people for the Republicans coming up with a "novel" equal protection claim to have your vote counted equally in the recount of a federal election, come on.
And then, the Democrats on the Court are all of a sudden vociferous defenders of states' rights.
Really?!
They should have all said "We have a constitutional order that has provisions of these types of disputes in terms of politcal institutions, and the Political Doctrine applies with full force here."
I will say, this is exactly what Harlan the Younger warned about in the Baker v Carr decisions in the sixties. He totally predicted this, although the degeneration of a constitutional order is also inevitable. So, maybe after a defeat in war, secession, civil war, and then union and victory, which is my forecast, we get something better. thanks for reminding people of this shame on the court.

Lonnie, you took the words right out of my mouth!

One very interesting point in this ruling, which is more often than not overlooked, is the fact that the ruling contained the caveat that it ONLY pertained to THIS single instance. That doesn't seem fitting for a Supreme Court Ruling; either it's appropriate, or it's not.

A dark day in American history. Vincent Bugliosi has said that the mainstream media has virtually ignored this book even though he is a best-selling author.

Rated

The most outrageous moment was when Scalia's argument basically said that a full Florida recount would cause irreparable damage to candidate Bush, and should therefore not happen. Other than the disenfranchisement of African Americans, this was perhaps the most shameful event in the history of democracy in America.

"May you live in interesting times." Wish we could take a pass, sometimes.

It changed everything. I was living in Florida and I'll never know if my vote was properly counted. I am certain though that thousands of retired Jewish people in Palm Beach County were robbed. Their votes were somehow registered as being for Pat Buchanan. I ask you, how likely do you think those retired Jewish folks, overwhelmingly Democrats, were to have voted for a born again right winger like Buchanan?

This changed everything. My overseas friends have never been able to understand how we could be so stupid to elect Bush twice. I'll never understand that either, never.

Lonnie, depending on how those ballots are recounted you probably are not in the minority!

OEsheepdog, I agree with your thoughts on the historical aspect and the current court!

Cobalt-ic, I recall some funny business in Ohio in the 2004 election but clearly that would not have mattered much if Kerry and Edwards had received a landslide in the votes cast nationwide.

Don, some great insight and additional details! I'll have to do some reading up on what you mention about Harlan the Younger and Baker v Carr.

Shiral, nice to see your agreements with this!

Rick, that is an important and crucial point that you have added here and the "one time only" deal made a mockery of the decision.

Steve, little wonder how Scalia would have handled it if the tables were turned. Thanks for the additional information on this case!

AtHomePilgrim, interesting times definitely includes some events we could easily do without!

Ablonde, as I recall Salon broke the store right away on the butterfly ballots of Palm Beach County and I kept informed on this by reading further accounts on Salon as they developed. As in the 2004 election with Kerry, there should have been far, far more people voting for Al Gore and then the issue in Florida would not have mattered. As it was. the lousy design of the butterfly ballots and other issues gave us the result we should never have had since the newspapers recount later on showed Gore to be the winner. Also, I can see how your friends overseas would come to that conclusion!

Thanks everybody for your great comments here!!

cobalt-ic: "Like it or not, Bush's 2nd term was legit."

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Oh, really!

The rnc knew stealing florida again would set off an unspeakable stench, so they focused on ohio (and maryland) and succeeded:

"Republicans prevented more than 350,000 voters in Ohio from casting ballots or having their votes counted - enough to have put John Kerry in the White House."

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.

I am " "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."

Walden O'Dell; CEO Diebold Inc. (voting machines)

The US badly needs an independent Electoral Commission to run its elections, something most other democracies have. The fact that in 2000, Bush's Florida Campaign Manager was also the State Attorney General who then oversaw the recount process was a scandalous conflict of interest. A decent person would have recused themselves but I never expect decency from today's Republicans.