It's the ironies and downright contradictions that leap out of the Supreme Court decision in Bush v. Gore. A conservative court that meant to stay out of political thickets and state affairs pushed the Florida Supreme Court aside and effectively picked a president. Because the recount rules in place weren't perfect, the court said, it would be better to have no recount at all. And because the court itself had stopped the counting last weekend, but hadn't stopped the clock, it said: alas, there is not enough time left now to do the job properly.
In 65 pages of Supreme Court prose on the split decision, not the least of the ironies is that the memorable, clarion language is not in the majority opinion but the ripping dissent of a Republican nominee Justice John Paul Stevens: we may never know who really won the election, he said. The clear loser is "the nation's confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law." The Bush v. Gore decision is this hour on The Connection. (Hosted by Christopher Lydon)
