One day after former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor expressed doubts about Bush v. Gore, one half of the 2000 presidential election equation stood by his own choice.
In an interview with Bloomberg Television on Tuesday, former Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore was asked whether he was surprised by O'Connor's comments.
"Well in the sense that I didn't know she was going to say it, then yes," Gore said. "I made a decision in the immediate aftermath of the Supreme Court decision 12, 13 years ago, to respect the rule of law. I strongly disagreed with their opinion, said so, but the rule of law is really the bedrock of American democracy."
Gore added that he believed this perspective was best for the country, standing by his decision to not bring the Supreme Court "into a political squabble where the outcome would not change at all in any case."
O'Connor's comments came in a discussion last Friday with the Chicago Tribune's editorial board. She directly questioned the court's move to take the case in the midst of it being an election issue.
"Maybe the court should have said, 'We're not going to take it, goodbye,'" O'Connor said.
Back in 2000, Bush v. Gore saw the Supreme Court use the U.S. Constitution's Equal Protection Clause to halt a recount of votes in Florida. The process was sparked by concerns over the reliability of ballots. Federal Election Commission data shows that while Bush won by five electoral votes, he took Florida by a margin of only 537 votes.
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