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US Constitution

... In the Constitution of the United States (the main law of the state) there are some important words such as, “All people are equal in the eyes of God”. What does it mean? It means that all people, regardless of race and color have the same rights, for example, the right to vote and to be elected in any office. The Constitution has some Amendments. Among them are the Fourteenth Amendment and the Fifteenth Amendment that guarantee equality of all people. For example, in the Fourteenth Amendment the equal protection clause prohibits discriminatory voting qualifications and guarantees individuals that their ballots cannot be devalued by “later arbitrary and disparate treatment”. All the courts of the USA use the Constitution and its Amendments (the Fourteenth and the Fifteenth) in resolving the cases connected with equality protection.

Let’s take for example two cases Bush v. Gore and United States v. Louisiana. The case Bush v. Gore was heard in the US Supreme Court in December 11, 2000. But before it was the Presidential election. It was held in November 7, 2000. According to the Electoral College system each state carries on its own election for President. The winner of each state’s election gets a number of “electoral votes”. The winner of a majority of the Electoral College becomes the President of the USA. In 2000 270 electoral votes were needed for the victory. In November 8, 2000 it was reported by the Florida Division of Elections. That Bush had a margin of victory of 1,784 votes. After the automatic machine recount the margin of victory was less then 0.5% of the votes cast. In November 10 the recount was finished in all but one county. Florida’s election laws permit a candidate to request a county to conduct a manual recount. So Al Gore, the Vice-President, requested manual recounts in four Florida counties: Volusia, Palm Beach, Broward and Miami – Dade. The four counties agreed to do it. But under Florida law all counties have to certify the election returns to The Florida Secretary of State within seven days of the election. The statutory deadline was November 14. On that day the Florida Circuit Court ruled that 7-day deadline was mandatory, but the counties could amend their returns at a later day. And secretary after “considering all attendant facts and circumstances” could include any late amended returns in the statewide certifications. In November 14, at 5 p.m., deadline, Florida’s Secretary of State Katherine Harris announced that she received the certified returns from all 67 counties, except Palm Beach, Broward and Miami – Dade counties: they were still conducting manual recounts.

Harris required any counting, seeking a late filling, to submit to her, by 2 p.m. the following day, a written statement of the facts and circumstances justifying the late filling. Four counties had fulfilled her requirement and Harris decided that none justified an extension of the filling deadline. So she announced that she would certify the results of the presidential election on Saturday, November 18, 2000. Gore and Palm Beach filed suit to make Harris include the amended returns an appealed the Florida Supreme Court. The Florida Supreme Court ordered Harris to accept the results of any manual recounts and certify them before November 26, at 5 p.m... In November 22, Bush appealed the United States Supreme Court. Basing on the Equal Protection clause the seven justices found that a ballot recount being conducted in certain counties in the state of Florida. Was to be stopped because of the lack of a consistent standard. Two Justices disagreed. The seven justices thought that even if the recount was fair in theory, it was unfair in practice. The record suggested the different standards were applied from ballot to ballot, precinct to precinct, and county to county. And because of those and other procedural difficulties the court decided that no constitutional recount could be done in the time remaining. The US Supreme Court also held that the recount scheme was unconstitutional. The Florida Supreme Court’s decision made new election law, but only the state legislature may do it. The decision stopped the state wide recount. It permitted Florida Secretary of State Katharine Harris to certify George W. Bush as the winner of Florida’s electoral votes. Florida’s 25 electoral votes gave Bush a majority of the Electoral College with 272 votes. It allowed him to win the Presidency. ...

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