Julius wrote, and Kakki responded:
> If that's decided after the electoral vote in Gore's favor after >Bush is
declared winner, what would be the remedy? They're >not going to remove Bush
from office at that point. No way.
I don't know - I think that if it were legally established that Gore did
ultimately win the electoral vote, I think they would have to remove Bush
from office. It would be a first, but I don't see that it could never
happen"
Kakki, I'm not picking on you, and I also value your friendship! But I must
respectfully disagree. There's something in that old axiom that "possession
is 9/10 of the law": when someone's got something of value, and a status
quo has been established, courts are often extremely reluctant to disrupt
the equilibrium, or to take that "something" away.
I realize it's a huge leap from the U.S. presidency to family law, but I
can't help but think of the many situations involving adoption and other
placement decisions for children in which an "OK" current placement is
favored over another which might have been better in the long run had it
only been implemented, because of the disruption and distress that a change
would cause to the child. Of course, there are exceptions: witness the
Baby Jessica and Baby Richard cases of some years back. But those cases
were distressing precisely because so many people found them so deeply
counter-intuitive. There, loving adoptive placements were ended in favor
of return of the children in question to couples found to have greater legal
claims, but no past relationships with the children, who were toddlers at
the time of definitive court action. And public outcry was swift and loud.
Here, I humbly submit that, in place of "best interest of the child," the
applicable standard will be found, officially or not, to be "best interest
of the country." And I find it hard to believe that a sitting president who
has already established a "relationship" with the American people *as* their
president and has acted as such will be unceremoniously ejected from the
Oval Office, no matter how strong the legal claim of the opposition is
ultimately found to be.
Mary P.
