What does the Supreme Courts decision mean?
First, in the most practical sense, vacating the November 21 ruling means that for the time being the Gore team finds itself in Judge Sauls’ courtroom at the bottom of a 900-vote hole, instead of a 537-vote hole, and will give the Bush team further ammunition to bolster its argument that the election contest was filed too late. It also postpones any action on the merits by the U.S. Supreme Court until additional events unfold in Florida. Second, the ball is tossed back to the Florida Supreme Court to more clearly articulate whether its ruling extending the deadline for the consideration of manual recount results was an interpretation solely of Florida statutes or whether the conclusion was premised in part either on provisions of the Florida Constitution regarding voter rights or on Title III of federal law. If the Florida Constitution was part of the reasoning, it would bolster the argument of the Bush lawyers that a federal constitutional question was implicated by the Florida court’
