Understanding the 2000 Election: A Guide to the Legal Battles that Decided the Presidency [Hardcover]

Abner Greene (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2001

Paperback Edition: Updated and with a New Foreword

The nation will not soon forget the drama of the 2000 presidential election. For five weeks we were transfixed by the legal clashes that enveloped the country from election night to the Gore concession. It was instant history, and will be studied by historians, lawyers, political scientists, media critics and others for years to come.

Even for those who followed the events most closely, the legal twists and turns of the post-election struggles seemed at times bewildering. We witnessed manual recounts of election ballots, GOP federal court lawsuits challenging those recounts, two Florida Supreme Court opinions, lawsuits over butterfly and absentee ballots, questions about the role of the Florida legislature and the United States Congress in resolving presidential election disputes, and two United States Supreme Court decisions, the second of which finally handed the election to Bush. Although the 2000 Presidency was decided through much legal wrangling, one should not have to be a lawyer to understand how we came to have Bush rather than Gore as our President in that hotly contested election.

Understanding the 2000 Election offers an accessible, comprehensive guide to the legal battles that finally gave George W. Bush the Presidency five weeks after election night. Meant to stand next to and clarify the numerous journalistic and personal accounts of the election drama, Understanding the 2000 Election offers a offers a step-by-step, non-partisan explanation and analysis of the major legal issues involved in resolving the presidential contest. The volume also offers a clear overview of the Electoral College, its history, what would be involved in switching over to a direct election, and the likely future of the Presidential electoral process. While some still decry the 2000 election outcome as the result of political manipulation rather than the rule of law, Greene shows that almost every legal conclusion of the post-election struggle can be understood through the application of legal principle, rather than politics.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Last year, American voters were busy deciding which presidential candidate would win the election based on the issues, but the reality of the election became a legally complicated decision. A professor at Fordham University School of Law and a legal analyst for various media outlets, Greene has written a comprehensive book addressing the specific details of the 2000 presidential election. He focuses on the steps of the election process and how the U.S. Supreme Court decided on the final results. The book takes the reader through the manual recounts in various states, the issues regarding the butterfly ballots in Palm Beach County, the electoral college system, disputes surrounding absentee ballots, the initial decisions made by the Florida Supreme Court, and, finally, the result of the U.S. Supreme Court decision on December 12, 2000. Although many accounts are available, this work is perfectly suited to the needs of the college research student or the lay reader wanting a better understanding of the 2000 presidential election and would be a valuable addition to larger public libraries and undergraduate library collections. Monica Maldonado Doman, Cypress Coll. Lib., CA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

“Superbly organized, with clarity and concision, Greene's book offers a highly readable, nonpartisan guidebook for those who don't speak legalese.”
-The National Journal

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“The 2000 presidential election will be remembered as one of the most astonishing political, legal and constitutional events in American history. In Understanding the 2000 Election, Abner Greene traces each step in this extraordinary story with clarity and insight. With a careful eye for detail, and a generous perspective that highlights his sense of the good faith of each of the conflicting participants, Greene offers what will inevitably be a controversial understanding of these events that reveals the 2000 presidential election as a triumph of law and civility over brute politics and unprincipled power.”
-Geoffrey R. Stone,Harry Kalven, Jr., Distinguished ServiceProfessor of Law, The University of Chicago

“Abner Greene is not only an outstanding legal analyst but a gifted storyteller. He has given us an extraordinarily thoughtful, illuminating and (happily) highly readable account of the various legal battles fought in the five weeks after the 2000 Election. The author promises to break down the complexity of the legal issues so lawyers and nonlawyers alike can follow along—and he succeeds brilliantly.”
-Yale Kamisar,Clarence Darrow Distinguished University Professor of Law, University of Michigan

“When future historians chronicle the battle of Bush v. Gore, they'll turn to Understanding the 2000 Election. Greene provides a clear, sophisticated, and accessible guide through the thicket of law and politics that surrounded the most surreal Presidential election of modern times.”
-George Stephanopoulos

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“Superbly organized, with clarity and concision, Greene’s book offers a highly readable, nonpartisan guidebook for those who don't speak legalese.”
-The National Journal

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See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: NYU Press (September 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814731481
• ISBN-13: 978-0814731482
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,275,993 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Overview of Election Mess, March 28, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Understanding the 2000 Election: A Guide to the Legal Battles that Decided the Presidency (Hardcover)

Abner Greene has done a terrific job in breaking down the choas that was the 2000 election. Greene is always clear, always even handed. He is a master at explaining difficult legal issues in layman's terms. All in all, an extremely informative and fun book!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars author responds, March 19, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Understanding the 2000 Election: A Guide to the Legal Battles that Decided the Presidency (Hardcover)

This is an "author responds" note: The commentator says my book is slanted toward Gore and that I have blasted the Supreme Court. This is of course not the venue to debate this, but it's important to note that I am one of the few commentators to *agree* with the Supreme Court's holding on the merits, i.e., that the "intent of the voter" standard is unconstitutional. My reasons are different from the Court's, but I hardly blast the Court on this crucial issue.

2 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Readable but slanted, February 7, 2002

By 

Brian M. Ayres (Valrico, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Understanding the 2000 Election: A Guide to the Legal Battles that Decided the Presidency (Hardcover)

Abner Greene opines in his afterword how, while the legal decisions in the 2000 presidential election aftermath seemed politically motivated, law itself remains above politics. This comes 175 pages into an analysis that carries mostly a political slant on the outcomes.

I commend Greene for being one of the first to write a highly-readable legal account of the 2000 election, unlike others written in bland legalese. This book can be understood by all non-lawyers, but it doesn't mean that it has been dumbed down.

The author winds through the legal wranglings with ease but often cheerleads for the left and Al Gore, always calling Bush's legal arguments "weak" and going to great lengths to come to Gore's defense.

His Monday morning quarterbacking is typical. His blasting of the U.S. Supreme Court is transparent. His defense of the butterfly ballot lawsuits is comical.

I don't have a problem with his partisanship. Greene's is the least rhetorical in the volumes out about the 2000 election. But clearly, the embers haven't cooled enough to provide a truly non-partisan view of the outcomes -- if there is such a thing.