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Bush V. Gore

Bush V. Gore
Bush V. Gore: The Background

The case of Bush v. Gore is very famous, for it had a great effect on the 2000 presidential election. The Bush v. Gore case occurred because the presidential election of 2000 faced a very serious problem.

In 2000, Al Gore, the former Vice President of the United States was facing George W. Bush for the presidential election. 

On December 8th of 2000, a local court in the state of Florida forced the city of Palm Beach to manually recount almost 10,000 ballots. This recount was imposed because the voters in Florida had problems with the state’s electronic voting machines. This problem was amplified because the ballots were not properly punched; a large number of ballots did not reveal who the voter intended to vote for.

The reason for the manual recount was the result of malfunctioning ballot machines and the suspicion that some of the members of the ballot counting committee were not being honest in their attempts to tally the votes. After losing the state of Florida and ultimately the 2000 presidential election, Al Gore petitioned that the ballots be recounted in a formal case, filed before the Circuit Court of Florida. After this filing a manual recount was enacted. 


Bush V. Gore: The Case Profile

The Bush v. Gore case officially began on December 11th of 2000. The case deals with Administrative law, which is the field of law that inspects any event where the Federal Government of the United States engages its citizens with matters involving the administration of government programs, the establishments of regulatory federal standards or the creation of agencies. 

The case of Bush v. Gore made its way to the United States Supreme Court. Originally Gore won his case and the ballots were manually recounted; however, George W. Bush explained that the manual recount undermined the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution. George W. Bush believed that the recount violated the American presidential election system. Bush believed the recount violated the preservation of equality and uniformity that existed within the administrative system.

Bush V. Gore: The Verdict

The United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of George Bush in Bush v. Gore. The Supreme Court explained that the state of Florida violated the 14th Amendment by enacting a recounting procedure. Specifically, the recounting procedure violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The Equal Protection Clause to the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution requires the federal government to respect, maintain and uphold the legal rights of American citizens. Governments in the United States are not allowed to infringe on the civil rights and liberties of its people. 

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