One night people went to bed thinking that Gore had won, but when they woke up they discovered that Bush had won by Florida's twenty-five electoral votes. It happened on November 7, 2000. Bush accused the recounts in Florida of violating the rules of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. A 7-2 majority ruled that the Florida recount had been conducted unconstitutionally. The case was controversial as majority versus minority opinion on compensation was divided along the lines of the more reactionary judges voting in favor of Bush and the more liberal judges voting in favor of Gore. Minority disunity noted these and other issues, including the principle of equality and conflicting laws that could be interpreted as counterbalancing the December 12 deadline. The Bush v. Gore crisis was not the courts' first incursion into the emperor's principality. It was 4pm when Bill Schneider said, "It's going to be a very close call." The national popular vote was 48 to 48. In December 2000 the Florida Supreme Court...