Everything You Know Is Wrong

I got this head's up from yesterday's "The Abrams Report" (transcript here, a little past halfway down page) that an article in the October 2004 issue of Vanity Fair, working with interviews of law clerks who worked on that ruling, says that the recount ruling was political. On Abrams last night:

Ever wonder how that decision was really determined, what really happened behind the scenes with the justices? Well, a new article in “Vanity Fair” magazine takes an inside look at how that opinion came to be and effectively says it was as political as many suspected.

They got exclusive interviews with some of the Supreme Court clerks, young lawyers just a year or two out of law school who often write the first of the justices. And according to this article, had more of an impact than many could even imagine.

The result, a blockbuster article with loads of new information.

Now remember, more than month after voters went to the polls, the court split decision 5-4 ruled that the recount violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution because they said there was not a uniform standard for counting the votes.

Many argue that reasoning was based more on politics than law, and this article suggests that‘s true.

That the ruling was political is hardly news; what's news is the fact that clerks on the ruling are now talking about it - - and pissing off a lot of conservative lawyers. Via Law.com:

More than 90 prominent lawyers and former Supreme Court law clerks including former Attorneys General Richard Thornburgh and William Barr have joined in a statement sharply criticizing the law clerks who gave behind-the-scenes details about the 2000 case Bush v. Gore to Vanity Fair magazine.

Interesting that these pinheads are griping about confidentiality and not the fact that the court ruled in a blatantly political manner, effectively usurping our democratic principles in order to put the worst president ever into office.

To his credit, Dan Abrams has offered conservative clerks the opportunity to rebut this from the shadows:

ABRAMS: I should tell you, you know. Look, if any of the conservative law clerks working at the time want to come on the program or call us, give us anonymous quotes to respond to this, I will put it on air.

I'll watch today's show and see what transpires; my bet is that NO ONE is going to address the issue and refute the statements in Vanity Fair's article but will merely (in true conservative fashion) parrot the inanities of a slimy idealogue like Thornburgh.

I'm buying my copy of Vanity Fair today and watching Abrams to see how this develops...