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 |
 |  http://propaganda.lege.net/partisans/
 |  Source: 
 |  http://the-rule-of-law.com/archive/supreme/statement.html
 |  Oct 3, 2002
 |
 |
 |  673 LAW PROFESSORS SAY
 |
 |  By Stopping the Vote Count in Florida,
 |  The U.S. Supreme Court Used Its Power
 |  To Act as Political Partisans,
 |  Not Judges of a Court of Law
 |
 |
 |  We are Professors of Law at 137 American law schools, from
 |  every part of our country, of different political beliefs. 
 |  But we all agree that when a bare majority of the U.S.
 |  Supreme Court halted the recount of ballots under Florida
 |  law, the five justices were acting as political proponents
 |  for candidate Bush, not as judges.
 |
 |
 |  It is Not the Job of a Federal Court
 |  to Stop Votes From Being Counted
 |
 |
 |  By stopping the recount in the middle, the five justices
 |  acted to suppress the facts.  Justice Scalia argued that the
 |  justices had to interfere even before the Supreme Court
 |  heard the Bush team's arguments because the recount might
 |  "cast a cloud upon what [Bush] claims to be the legitimacy
 |  of his election."  In other words, the conservative justices
 |  moved to avoid the "threat" that Americans might learn that
 |  in the recount, Gore got more votes than Bush.  This is
 |  presumably "irreparable" harm, because if the recount
 |  proceeded and the truth once became known, it would never
 |  again be possible to completely obscure the facts.  But it
 |  is not the job of the courts to polish the image of
 |  legitimacy of the Bush presidency by preventing disturbing
 |  facts from being confirmed.  Suppressing the facts to make
 |  the Bush government seem more legitimate is the job of
 |  propagandists, not judges.
 |
 |
 |  By taking power from the voters,
 |  the Supreme Court has tarnished its
 |  own legitimacy.  As teachers whose lives
 |  have been dedicated to the rule of law,
 |  we protest.
 |
 |
 |  MAIN SUPREME COURT PAGE
 |  http://the-rule-of-law.com/archive/supreme/
 |
 |  COMMENTARY, COURT DOCUMENTS, RESOURCES
 |  http://the-rule-of-law.com/archive/supreme/link.html
 |
 |  WHAT CAN BE DONE?
 |  http://the-rule-of-law.com/archive/supreme/whatnow.html
 |
 |
 |  (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this
 |  material is distributed without profit to those who have
 |  expressed a prior interest in receiving the included
 |  information for research and educational purposes.)
 |
 |
 |
 |  Additional reading:
 |
 |  Resources
 |  http://propaganda.lege.net/resources/
 |______________________________________________________________