The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court

The first of three chapters devoted to the Supreme Court’s role in the 2000 presidential election, Chapter 11 begins by addressing the partisan nature of most of the justices. Only Souter and Stevens, Toobin claims, had no interest in politics. Perhaps the justice with the most interest was O’Connor, who was friends with George H. W. Bush and his wife, Barbara, and found George W. Bush, the Republican candidate, to be an attractive candidate in 2000. O’Connor and her husband, John, attended an election party with friends on November 7 that year. At one point, O’Connor was heard saying, “This is terrible. That means it’s over” (143), when Florida was called at first for Vice President Al Gore (it was later too close to call).The meaning of that was ambiguous, but her husband had also confided to friends that she wanted Bush to win so that she could retire (and did not want a Democrat to name her replacement).

The close election in Florida, whose electoral votes would decide who became president, set off a series of events without precedent in U.S. history. An automatic recount was done based on the close results, which showed Bush winning by 327 votes. A controversy arose in Palm Beach County, the most Democratic-leaning in the state.