Today, the Nation may be on the verge of a constitutional crisis. On the heels of the closest election in American history, one candidate has forced this election out of the hands of the American people, and into the laps of the Florida judiciary. Never before has a presidential contest been decided in state court. Never before has one been decided in any court. The Supreme Court, however, can bring order to chaos.
Basic fairness dictates that it is wrong to change the rules of a game after the game is over.
In contrast, the Florida Supreme Court held that the late returns could never be ignored during a manual recount. These post-election rule changes usurped from the people of Florida the power to themselves determine the rules by which their elections would proceed. If a candidate is victorious under these rules, the matter is ended. The rules cannot later be changed in an effort to defeat that candidate. On November 7, the people voted, the votes were counted, and Governor George W. Bush won.