Unforgiven

AN hour after a colleague and I arrived in Orlando last November to work on the trial team representing George W Bush and Richard Cheney in Jacobs v. Seminole County Canvassing Board, there was to be a telephone conference with our judge, Nikki Ann Clark. There was intense anxiety about Clark in the Bush-Cheney war room. Not only was she considered a staunch liberal, she had been turned down in September for a seat on the Florida court of appeals—by our client’s brother, Gov. Jeb Bush. A motion seeking her recusal had been drafted and was ready to be filed as soon as the conference was over.

The concern about Judge Clark illustrates a characteristic common to all the Florida election-contest cases—the unprecedented depth to which party politics invaded the province of law. Americans are accustomed to having their Supreme Court controversies served up bitter and partisan. Ordinarily, though, the debates are driven by lofty principles of morality, justice, or faith. Never before in recent memory had such a rancorous debate been divided along naked party lines. This was as true in Seminole County as in the suit brought by Al Gore seeking a hand recount of so-called undervotes in Miami-Dade and other counties. That was the case, ultimately known as Bush v. Gore, that went up to the U.S. Supreme Court not once but twice, and is the subject of several recent books.

MM

About the Author

Mark Miller

Mark Miller is the director of environment and natural resources litigation at the Pacific Legal Foundation.

Featured Tags

Presidential Election

Courts

AN hour after a colleague and I arrived in Orlando last November to work on the trial team representing George W Bush and Richard Cheney in Jacobs v. Seminole County Canvassing Board, there was to be a telephone conference with our judge, Nikki Ann Clark. There was intense anxiety about Clark in the Bush-Cheney war room. Not only was she considered a staunch liberal, she had been turned down in September for a seat on the Florida court of appeals—by our client’s brother, Gov. Jeb Bush. A motion seeking her recusal had been drafted and was ready to be filed as soon as the conference was over.

The concern about Judge Clark illustrates a characteristic common to all the Florida election-contest cases—the unprecedented depth to which party politics invaded the province of law. Americans are accustomed to having their Supreme Court controversies served up bitter and partisan. Ordinarily, though, the debates are driven by lofty principles of morality, justice, or faith. Never before in recent memory had such a rancorous debate been divided along naked party lines. This was as true in Seminole County as in the suit brought by Al Gore seeking a hand recount of so-called undervotes in Miami-Dade and other counties. That was the case, ultimately known as Bush v. Gore, that went up to the U.S. Supreme Court not once but twice, and is the subject of several recent books.