Disasters beyond the control of local election officials are one thing. The point here is not just that the judges made the wrong decision. It was not their decision to make. The Constitution gives different powers to different branches of government for a reason. It is what keeps us free.
Power is too dangerous to all be in one set of hands, whether judicial, executive or legislative.
But the Florida Supreme Court has a history of usurping powers belonging to other branches of government. The media have covered all this as a horse race between Bush and Gore, with very little attention being paid to what it means for the country and for the future. They played by the rules. When the Florida votes were counted in the way prescribed by Florida law, Bush won. When the votes were automatically recounted because of the narrow margin of victory, Bush won again.