Bush v. Gore (2000)

Bush v. Gore halted a Florida recount in the contested presidential election of 2000 and effectively decided the presidency in favor of George W. Bush. It is the only Supreme Court decision in American history to resolve a presidential election.

The presidential election of 2000 came down to Florida. On election night, the state was too close to call. Out of nearly six million votes cast, the margin between Bush and Gore was a few hundred. Florida law called for a machine recount, which narrowed the margin further. The Gore campaign requested hand recounts in several heavily Democratic counties, where many ballots had been rejected by counting machines for unclear markings, the so-called hanging chads. The Florida Supreme Court ordered a statewide manual recount of undervotes. The Bush campaign appealed to the United States Supreme Court. The Court issued its decision on December 12, 2000. In a 5-4 ruling, it held that the recount as ordered by the Florida court violated the Equal Protection Clause because different counties were applying different standards for evaluating ballots. A 7-2 majority agreed there was an equal protection problem. The narrower 5-4 majority held that there was no time to fix it within the safe-harbor deadline set by federal law for resolving disputed electors. The recount was halted. Gore conceded the next day. Bush became the 43rd President with a final certified margin of 537 votes in Florida. The decision was deeply controversial. The majority itself wrote that its ruling was "limited to the present circumstances" and should not be treated as precedent for future cases. Critics argued that the Court should not have intervened. Defenders argued that the Florida court had improperly rewritten state election law. Bush v. Gore established no doctrine that has been widely applied since. Its significance lies elsewhere. It is the moment in modern American history when the Supreme Court directly determined the outcome of a presidential election.