Customer Reviews

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

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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!

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.

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.