-Caveat Lector- WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! CONGRESS ACTION: December 9, 2000 ================= "NO FOUNDATION IN THE LAW": The Rule of Law no longer exists in the state of Florida. It is now little better than a feudal kingdom ruled of a group of autocrats who call themselves the Florida Supreme Court. The lawsuits in Seminole and Martin counties were said to present Gore's last chance to overturn the election and have judges appoint him President. Those suits asked that all the absentee votes in those counties be thrown out -- a total of 24,988 votes. The claim was that republicans "fraudulently" added voter identification numbers to applications for absentee ballots; but there was no allegation of any manipulation of the ballots themselves, and no claim that the votes were in any way invalid, except that the ballots were issued in response to "fraudulent" application forms. Media reports indicate that about 2000 applications in Seminole, and about 500 applications in Martin, were so altered -- ten percent. Thus even the plaintiffs admitted that ninety percent of all absentee applications and absentee votes in those counties were valid in every way. Yet because nobody knew which 2500 applications were modified, the plaintiffs asked the courts to rule all 24,988 votes invalid -- including those ninety percent which even the plaintiffs admitted were correct in every way. In the end, both Judge Nikki Clark (Seminole County) and Judge Terry Lewis (Martin County) refused the democrat requests to exclude the absentee votes. Gore claimed no connection at all to those suits, but there is information that the plaintiff in Seminole contributed at least $50,000 to the democrats in this election, and did discuss his suit with DNC-connected lawyers. Gore also claimed that, in addition to the applications altered by republicans, democrat applications were actually thrown out by republican operatives. That charge was not alleged in the complaint in either county, and not a shred of evidence to that effect was produced at either trial. But none of that is relevant -- beyond proving yet again that Gore cannot be trusted to tell the truth. Which anyone who isn't brain-dead, and who has paid even passing attention to the last eight years of this administration, knew already. But the big news came from the Florida Supreme Court, which reversed the ruling of Circuit Court Judge Sauls, and ordered the inclusion of hundreds of votes -- from the partial recounts of only the democrat districts in Miami and Palm Beach -- for Gore. The Court also ordered a hand recount of all undervoted ballots in the rest of the entire state of Florida. What standard would be used? Dimpled or pregnant chads? The standards in effect at the time of the election? The Court didn't bother to say. "A clear indication of the intent of the voter" was all they said, in response to which a Leon County judge ruled that each canvassing board could adopt whatever standard they selected -- no uniformity required, no challenges by party observers to be permitted (but both candidates still have the legal right to protest this new count, unless the Court simply voids that law as well), and Circuit Court Judges are doing the counting. Further, because the undervotes in many counties were not separated out from counted votes, there is a real probability that already counted votes will be counted a second time. Thus some voters will get two votes. The Florida Supreme Court has rejected the judicial restraint urged upon it by the U.S. Supreme Court; again legislating from the bench, again ignoring even more deadlines set by statute, and ignoring the warning from the U.S. Supreme Court that they are bound by federal law and the U.S. Constitution. This decision threw down the gauntlet to the U.S. Supreme Court and the Florida legislature, expressing the Court's clear intent to simply ignore federal law, the U.S. Supreme Court, and the U.S. Constitution. This Court has very clearly demonstrated the dangers to our republic when win-at-all-cost democrats appoint activist judges who deem themselves so superior, that they are entitled to rule the benighted masses in any way they see fit. Whether the U.S. Supreme Court will intervene again is very much in doubt. It is increasingly likely that the Florida legislature will step in and stop this travesty, and overrule the Florida Supreme Court by either confirming the Electoral College Electors appointed pursuant to the already certified results of the election, or appointing its own slate of Electors. But that, of course, will ignite a firestorm of anger amidst a public ignorant of the Constitutional duties of state legislatures (thank you, public education system), and among the Gore media who are either equally ignorant, or are simply using public ignorance to demagogue this issue to the ignorant. Chief Justice Wells of the Florida Supreme Court wrote an astonishingly strong dissent. Wells said that the decision to resume counting the undervotes ".has no foundation in the law of Florida.". The majority decision, Wells wrote, ".cannot withstand the scrutiny which will certainly immediately follow under the United States Constitution." ".we run a great risk that every election will result in judicial testing. Judicial restraint in respect to elections is absolutely necessary because the health of our democracy depends on elections being decided by voters -- not by judges." He warned his colleagues that their judicial activism "propels this country and this state into an unprecedented and unnecessary Constitutional crisis. I have to conclude that there is a real and present likelihood that this Constitutional crisis will do substantial damage to our country, our state, and to this Court as an institution." A Constitutional crisis, it must be reiterated, that is the result of Gore's obsession to overturn this election; and of a judiciary that thinks itself entitled to rule by diktat. Justice Harding, in his dissent, said that this decision would ".lead to chaos." "We are a nation of laws, and we have survived and prospered as a free nation because we have adhered to the rule of law." LEFTY ACADEMIA: During the fight over Bill Clinton's impeachment, a gaggle of 400 of what William Safire called "Lefty Historians to Save Clinton" emerged to purchase (with the financial aid, as later emerged, of the extreme-left People for the American Way) an open letter, six days before the 1998 election, condemning what they called a "dangerous new theory of impeachment". They were followed by 430 law professors who proceeded to lecture Congress that even if perjury and obstruction of justice were proven, Bill Clinton should still not be impeached. Well, as Ronald Reagan might say, "There they go again." The decision of the Florida legislature to convene a special session to assure smooth appointment of Electoral College Electors has provoked hysteria from academia's left wing once again. Reuters reports that a group of 37 Constitutional scholars from law schools across the nation have signed ".a letter to the legislature drafted by democrats." (emphasis added) claiming that "If the Florida legislature intervenes after the election has occurred it will set a precedent for state legislatures to intervene in every close election. This is a formula for unending instability in presidential elections. Such a precedent would gravely undermine the legitimacy of the office on a permanent basis, and severely damage the entire Constitutional structure." Note that carefully -- it is not Gore's unending lawsuits to overturn the certified results of the election that he lost; it is not the Florida Supreme Court's usurpation of legislative authority and disavowal of the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Constitution; it is not democrat partisans presuming to read the minds of voters under ever changing standards of ballots, and often under no standards at all; it is not the democrats braying "illegitimate" at every opportunity -- that are destabilizing the election and undermining the legitimacy of the office of the President. No, it is the Florida legislature exercising its Constitutionally mandated duty that will lead to all those awful results. We have come to expect left-wing extremists like Congressman Jerrold Nadler to say the most ludicrous things to advance their agenda, as when he said that appointing Electoral College Electors should not be left to the "elitist, undemocratic" -- and publicly elected -- Florida legislature, but should be left in the hands of the courts instead. There are many on the extreme left who would prefer to see the nation ruled by imperial judicial decree rather than by elected representatives of the people under the Constitution. We have come to expect Constitutional ignorance from elected officials, as when the democrat minority leader of the Florida House called the special legislative session "illegal". Now, thanks to the Clintonization of this nation, we can always expect the left-wing academic elite to come rushing out to throw their alleged expertise on the scales, in service to whatever leftist cause needs defending. The ultimate authority, the United States Constitution, in Article II, Section 1, clause 2, provides, "Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors.". (emphasis added) The Federalist Papers, in Article 45 written by the chief architect of the Constitution, James Madison, says, "Without the intervention of the State legislatures, the President of the United States cannot be elected at all. They must in all cases have a great share in his appointment, and will, perhaps, in most cases, of themselves determine it." (emphasis added) And in debates at the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Madison said that election of the President by the Judiciary ". was out of the question." Federal law, in Title 3, United States Code, Section 5, provides, "If any State shall have provided, by laws enacted prior to the day fixed for the appointment of the electors, for its final determination of any controversy or contest concerning the appointment of all or any of the electors of such State.such determination made pursuant to such law so existing on said day.shall be conclusive.". (emphasis added) Finally, the U.S. Supreme Court, in the case of George W. Bush v Palm Beach County Canvassing Board decided December 4, first cited Article II, Section 1, clause 2, of the Constitution, and then said, "If the state legislature has provided for final determination of contests or controversies by a law made prior to election day, that determination shall be conclusive.". (emphasis added) Constitutional scholars notwithstanding, democrat and media hysteria notwithstanding, only the legislature of the individual states -- not the judiciary -- holds the full, final and unquestionable duty (the plenary power) to designate the manner in which Electors are appointed. Since the U.S. Senate ignored its duty to hold a real trial following impeachment, and refused to convict this president of high crimes and misdemeanors, we have seen the pernicious effects of telling this president that he would henceforth be above the law. Al "no-controlling-legal-authority" Gore has learned that lesson well. Thanks to the "living Constitution" crowd that has turned the Constitution on its head to satisfy their lust for power, thanks to Gore's obsession, public ignorance, and Florida's judicial activists, the Constitutional crisis we now face is a state legislature actually planning to obey the Constitution! A "living Constitution" that changes however some judge fancies, to suit the prevailing winds of the day, is no Constitution at all. Because the only limits on the power of government are contained in our Constitution, a malleable, ever changing, "living Constitution" abandons all meaningful restraint on that power. That is a recipe for tyranny; in this case, tyranny by judicial diktat. Rest assured that a suitable group of left-wing academics will be rounded up to tell us that the Founders really did intend for this nation to be ruled by an unaccountable Judicial Aristocracy. FOR MORE INFORMATION. ======================== Florida Supreme Court: http://www.flcourts.org/ Eleventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals: http://www.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions.htm United States Supreme Court: http://www.supremecourtus.gov/ http://supct.law.cornell.edu:8080/supct/ Florida (Leon County) Court Documents: http://www.clerk.leon.fl.us/cases.html Florida Statutes: http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?Mode=ViewStatutes&Submenu=1 Florida Election Statutes: http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Index&Title_Req uest=IX#TitleIX Florida Criminal Code: http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Index&Title_Req uest=XLVI#TitleXLVI ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mr. Kim Weissman [EMAIL PROTECTED] *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. 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