“We should not be a prominent institution in democracy. We are called in to correct mistakes. When you have to call us in, someone has screwed up.” May it please the court, that was Justice Antonio Scalia testifying to the Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward earlier this year. It’s a measure of the irony of this whole election story that Justice Scalia and the people we think of as the most ardent defenders of judicial restraint are leading the judicial revolution against counting all the votes in election 2000.
The Supreme Court is America’s firewall against politics and partisan bickering but on Saturday afternoon after the High Court halted the recount of Florida’s votes against a ticking clock, it started a firestorm of criticism and debate against the only institution with any legitimacy left in the whole election fiasco. Oyez, Oyez now the doors of justice are closed to hear the case of Bush v Gore, can we talk about the Court this hour on the Connection.
(Hosted by Christopher Lydon)
Guests:
Laurence Henry Tribe, Professor of Constitutional Law, Harvard
Einer Elhauge, Professor of Law, Harvard.