Justice O'Connor upset when seemed Gore won -- Report

Justice O'Connor upset when seemed Gore won -- Report
REUTERS

NEW YORK, DEC 18: Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was upset during an election-night party when she heard Florida was first called for Vice President Al Gore, exclaiming, ``This is terrible,'' according to a report in Newsweek magazine, released on Sunday.

The report said O'Connor made the comment at about 8 pm (0100 GMT Nov 8) on Nov 7, and declared that meant the election was ``over'' because Gore had also won two other key states.

Quoting two eyewitnesses to her comments, Newsweek said that O'Connor then walked off to get a plate of food, and her husband, John, explained to friends and acquaintances that she was upset because they wanted to retire to Arizona and a Gore presidency meant they would have to wait another four years because she did not want a Democrat to name her successor.

Not long after Florida was called for Gore, news organisations retracted the call and said Florida was too close to be awarded to either candidate. The state was then called for Bush, but again that call was retracted and the race remained in limbo for five weeks.

O'Connor (70) had been Republican majority leader of the Arizona State Senate before being appointed to the US Supreme Court by president Ronald Reagan in 1981.

The magazine said in its edition due out on Monday her remarks would likely fuel criticism that high court justices ``sought to influence'' election returns in their ruling in George W Bush V. Albert Gore Jr that ended the impasse over the presidential election.

Bush, the Republican Governor of Texas, won the White House when Gore, who had sought a hand recount of thousands of contested ballots in Florida, conceded defeat on Wednesday, one day after a 5-4 Supreme Court ruling that prevented any new recounts from going forward.

Newsweek, seeking a response from Justice O'Connor to the accounts of her election-night comment, said that a high court spokesman said she had no comment.

In its story, Newsweek noted that Justice O'Connor had no way of knowing when she let her guard down that the networks' early call that Gore won Florida's key 25 electoral votes was premature and that five weeks later she would play a direct and decisive role in the election of his Republican rival.

The magazine added that O'Connor could not possibly have foreseen that she would be one of two swing votes in the court's 5-4 decision.

The Newsweek report came a day after the magazine released a poll that said Americans remained deeply divided over the Supreme Court's ruling that gave the Presidency to Bush, and nearly two out of three thought politics played a role in the decision.

While 51 per cent said the court's decision that hand counts of contested ballots in Florida could not resume was fair, 44 per cent considered it unfair, Newsweek said.

Sixty-five per cent of those surveyed believed politics or partisanship played a role in the US Supreme Court justices' decision, according to the poll.

A larger proportion -- 81 per cent -- saw politics playing a role in the decisions of Florida state courts, which in some cases ruled in favor of Gore during the legal battle to determine the 43rd US President.