Judge's slip of tongue fuel for political row over ruling

NEW YORK - A Republican appointment to the United States Supreme Court was upset at hearing election-night reports that Democrat candidate Al Gore had won the key state of Florida, Newsweek reported yesterday.

The magazine quoted Justice Sandra Day O'Connor as saying "this is terrible" when the media prematurely awarded the state's decisive electoral-college votes to the Vice-President.

According to two eyewitnesses, O'Connor then walked off to get some food. 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.



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

The magazine said that her remarks were likely to fuel criticism that Justices sought to influence election returns in their ruling in 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 a day after a 5-4 Supreme Court ruling that prevented any new recounts.

A court spokesman told Newsweek that O'Connor had no comment to make on the report.

In its story, the magazine noted that on election night, when the judge let her guard down, she had no way of knowing that the networks were premature in announcing Gore's victory and that five weeks later she would play a direct and decisive role in the election of his Republican rival.

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

The report came a day after the magazine released a poll that said Americans remained deeply divided over the high court's ruling that gave the presidency to Bush.

Nearly two out of three thought politics played a role in the ruling.

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.

But 81 per cent saw politics playing a role in the decisions of Florida state courts, which in some cases ruled in favour of Gore during the prolonged legal battle to determine the 43rd US President.

- REUTERS

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