On This Day: Bush v. Gore is Decided by the Supreme Court

On December 12, 2000, the United States Supreme Court ruled that George W. Bush won the 25 electoral votes for Florida in the 2000 Presidential Election against Al Gore. Three days earlier, on December 9th, the Supreme Court halted the Florida recount and scheduled the Electoral College to decide the election on December 18, 2000. The recount began after news organizations erroneously reported Gore had won Florida before the polls had closed in Republican counties. The question of the case centered around whether or not the Florida Supreme Court violated the Constitution by making new election laws and if standardless manual recounts violated the Equal Protection and Due Process Clause. Following the Electoral College election, Bush won 271 of the necessary 270 electoral votes and became President of the United States.