Lawyers extend the clock metaphor

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, DEC. 1. The United States Supreme Court ruling, that will clinch the much-delayed presidency, is expected to be given in a very short time - perhaps as early as Friday night and no later than early next week. The nine-judge bench, it is said, is quite aware of the constitutional deadlines in the electoral process.

The chief lawyer of the Republican campaign, Mr. Theodore Olson, is expected to argue that the Florida Supreme Court ruling - extending the deadline of certification to include handcounted votes - violated federal law and the Constitution by changing the rules of the game after the conclusion of the November 7 election. The top lawyer for the Democrats, Mr. Laurence Tribe, would be arguing that the Florida Supreme Court was merely interpreting the State law and as such the U.S. Supreme Court should not be second-guessing its judgment.

While the Bush legal team has been charging the Florida Supreme Court of creating ``post-election chaos'' and ``turmoil'', the Gore team has been consistently saying that the opposition is seeking judicial avenues to run the clock out. In the view of Mr. Tribe, the Texas Governor, Mr. George Bush, is not just interested in running the clock out but ``extraordinarily to have this court (U.S. Supreme Court) turn back the clock in pending the Florida contest proceedings so that he can declare the game over''.

Much of the attention on Friday would be on the apex court, but the legal battle continues to be waged in Tallahassee, Florida, with both teams slugging it out in a variety of courts. The Gore campaign is yet to hear from the State Supreme Court on its petition for an expedited ballot count of some 14,000 votes.

In an aggressive filing, lawyers for Mr. Bush have asked a circuit court judge to throw out Mr. Al Gore's challenge to the election in Florida; they would be issuing subpoenas to at least 95 witnesses at this trial. The motion filed with the judge, Mr. Sanders Sauls, also argues that recounting selective ballots is illegal and counting of all of the ballots in the State would have ``dire consequences'' for Florida and the United States.

The Bush camp prevailed upon Mr. Sauls to physically bring more than 1.1 million ballots from Palm Beach and Miami Dade counties. Additionally, the judge is being asked to bring in a further 1.2 million votes from Volusia, Broward and Pinellas counties on grounds that the Vice-President got a number of ``illegal votes'' in these areas. There has been no ruling on this.

On Thursday, the yellow truck bringing the ballots from Palm Beach under police escort hogged attention - the footage shot by accompanying media helicopters reminiscent of the highway chase in Los Angeles in 1994 of the famous football star, Mr. O.J.Simpson. There is also a critical case - referred to as the sleeper case - in the Leon county circuit court where Democrats are trying to throw out 15,000 absentee ballots in Seminole county on grounds that Republicans illegally altered absentee ballot applications.

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Section  : International
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