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A Judicial Putsch

By Chris Suellentrop and Jeremy Derfner
Updated Friday, Dec. 15, 2000, at 8:30 PM ET

New Republic

New Republic, Dec. 25

The magazine goes apoplectic over the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Bush v. Gore. The editorial calls the decision "Orwellian" and says Bush's presidency is "the prize of a judicial putsch." It concludes, "We disrespectfully dissent." … A piece knocks the majority's "unfathomable moral obtuseness" and describes the ruling as "so transparently incoherent that one does not even need any special understanding of the law to grasp its vacuity." … Another piece suggests that Bush exposed the Supremes' true nature just as the Starr Report exposed President Clinton. The hypocritical decision is the flip side of the judicial activism that conservatives criticized in Roe v. Wade. The majority's "whimsical theory" calls into question the nation's entire system of voting and will "spawn an explosion of lawsuits after every close election."

Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News & World Report

Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News & World Report, Dec. 18
 One cover image sweeps the newsweeklies: the Constitution. Time's cover story scoffs at the crisis hawks, calling the current controversy peanuts compared to what the founders dealt with. … Newsweek is less optimistic about America's ability to navigate the murky constitutional waters. In a Newsweek poll, 40 percent of respondents said a Bush presidency would be seriously hurt by GatorWait, while 45 percent said the same of a Gore presidency; 72 percent of respondents thought all Florida undervotes deserved a statewide hand-count. … U.S. News is a news cycle behind because it went to press before the Supreme Court issued its Saturday injunction. … A Time piece laments that even the ostensibly objective courts are now sharply divided along political lines. Two weeks ago, Time expressed just the opposite sentiment, extolling the Supreme Court especially for its above-the-fray virtue.

Time explains why so many Palestinians have died during the current intifada. No clear rules of engagement exist, and Israeli troops have failed to develop non-lethal crowd-control measures. Rubber bullets, for instance, kill at close range. Palestinian rioters often try to provoke deadly violence because it is politically useful. The Palestinian body count now stands at 277.

Newsweek reports that investigators have uncovered the mastermind of the USS Cole bombing, and Yemeni courts have six co-conspirators in custody but can't conclusively tie the attack to Osama Bin Laden. … A piece claims that 1 million undocumented immigrants are currently living in the United States working without pay as domestics, field hands, or prostitutes.

U.S. News says the economy is headed for a soft landing—or not. If the high-tech, automobile, and real estate industries all fail at the same time, it could snowball into a deep recession. On the other hand, the Internet bubble has already burst, and the economy is still performing very well overall.

The New Yorker

The New Yorker, Dec. 18
A piece examines stonewalling by authorities at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The daughter of Marine Col. William Tyra died mysteriously during a routine operation at the center after a resident in anesthesiology improperly administered several drugs. The resident lied about it to his superiors, who then refused to give Col. Tyra information about what happened. Tyra retired from the Marines to pursue the case full-time, and now the resident is being court-martialed. Tyra has targeted the superiors who he believes led a cover-up. … An article explains the legal controversy over affirmative action at the University of Michigan, which is headed to the Supreme Court. The future of affirmative action for all public universities (and perhaps private universities) hangs in the balance. The crux of the disagreement: Anti-affirmative-action forces view universities as avenues to material and social success, and thus universities must be democratic and fair. Universities view themselves as creators of intellectual communities, and therefore believe selectivity is paramount.

Weekly Standard

Weekly Standard, Dec. 18
The cover, the editorial, two articles (here and here), and an excerpt from the dissenting opinion in the Florida Supreme Court all blast that court for judicial overreach. If Gore is elected, "[w]e will therefore continue to insist that he gained office through an act of judicial usurpation. We will not 'move on.' Indeed, some of us will work for the next four years to correct this affront to our constitutional order," the editorial states. … An article argues that Democrats hold the long-term political advantage over Republicans because their geographical base (the coasts) is home to the New Economy. In the short term, the rift between the left and moderate wings of the party could throw upcoming elections to the Republicans, especially if the old liberals continue to surge.

The Nation

The Nation, Dec. 25
The editorial urges three Republican electors to stray to Gore if Bush wins Florida. Such faithlessness would highlight the absurdity of the undemocratic Electoral College and lead to its abolishment. The editors stress that they support faithlessness not because they support Al Gore but because "it would be the right thing to do." … An article examines America's public-transit crisis by lamenting the degradation of the once-great Montgomery, Ala., bus system. Now utterly segregated again, it maintains only three regular routes. The state spends almost its entire transportation budget on new roads even though 700,000 Alabamians are considered "transportation disadvantaged."

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Chris Suellentrop, a former Slate staffer, writes "The Opinionator" for the New York Times. Jeremy Derfner is a former Slate editorial assistant.
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