Does the Bush campaign have any additional avenues to challenge the ruling of the Florida Supreme Court that the manual recount results should be included in the final counts?
There still remains open to both campaigns the avenue of statutory election “contests” that challenge the legality of the certified election result. In addition, the federal court litigation, now before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, could be reactivated. That case raised the contention that the inclusion of the manual recount results violates the plaintiff-voters’ right to equal protection under the Constitution of the United States. (Such a constitutional argument was not presented by the Florida Supreme Court.) The 11th Circuit has invited supplemental briefing from the parties during the week of November 27 to address, among other things, the Florida ruling. The U.S. Supreme Court also could be asked to hear such a federal constitutional question. More questions…
