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A Polarizing Court?

Analyzing Judicial Decisions in a Red/Blue America

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Politics to the Extreme

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Abstract

As the year 2000 neared conclusion, the Supreme Court of the United States announced its decision in Bush v. Gore, putting an end to one of the most contested presidential elections in American history. Liberal critics of the ruling, which effectively declared that Republican George W. Bush would be the nation’s next president, denounced the Court for undertaking nothing short of a “constitutional coup.”1 Conservatives hailed the decision for providing clarity to an election left uncertain by Florida’s vote counting process and by the closeness of the vote there. Liberals pointed to the fact that the five most conservative justices joined forces to declare the more conservative of the presidential candidates the victor. Conservatives responded by noting that Republican presidents had appointed two of the four justices in dissent. Nearly everyone agreed that the decision was a prime example of the increasing polarization defining the nation’s politics.

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Authors
  1. Kevin J. McMahon
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Editor information

Scott A. Frisch Sean Q. Kelly

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© 2013 Scott A. Frisch and Sean Q Kelly

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McMahon, K.J. (2013). A Polarizing Court?. In: Frisch, S.A., Kelly, S.Q. (eds) Politics to the Extreme. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137312761_8

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