Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98 (2000), was a
landmark decisionof the
United States Supreme Court on December 12, 2000, that settled a recount dispute in
Florida's 2000 presidential election between
George W. Bush and
Al Gore. On December 8, the
Florida Supreme Court had ordered a statewide recount of all
undervotes, over 61,000 ballots that the vote tabulation machines had missed. The Bush campaign immediately asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the decision and halt the recount. Justice
Antonin Scalia, contending that all the manual recounts being performed in Florida's counties were illegitimate, urged his colleagues to grant the stay immediately.December 9, the five conservative justices on the Court granted the stay, with Scalia citing "irreparable harm" that could befall Bush, as the recounts would cast "a needless and unjustified cloud" over Bush's legitimacy. In dissent, Justice
John Paul Stevens wrote that "counting every legally cast vote cannot constitute irreparable harm."Oral arguments were scheduled for December 11.