The Atlantic

Does Brett Kavanaugh Agree With <em>Bush v. Gore</em>?

If he does, he can’t be trusted to distinguish between partisan demand and legal principle.
Source: Lucas Jackson / Reuters

On November 22, 2000, while George W. Bush’s and Al Gore’s lawyers battled over disputed votes in Florida courts, three of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s four law clerks went home for Thanksgiving. I was one of them. Two days later, when her Court took the case, we were still at home. The decision stunned us.

The disputed 2000 election was a national trauma. Its conclusion, the ruling, is a repressed memory. The decision declared its reasoning “limited to the present circumstances,” and the justices have been good to their word. Election cases come and go, but

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from The Atlantic

The Atlantic4 min read
Hayao Miyazaki’s Anti-war Fantasia
Once, in a windowless conference room, I got into an argument with a minor Japanese-government official about Hayao Miyazaki. This was in 2017, three years after the director had announced his latest retirement from filmmaking. His final project was
The Atlantic3 min readDiscrimination & Race Relations
The Legacy of Charles V. Hamilton and Black Power
This is an edition of Time-Travel Thursdays, a journey through The Atlantic’s archives to contextualize the present and surface delightful treasures. Sign up here. This week, The New York Times published news of the death of Charles V. Hamilton, the
The Atlantic6 min read
The Happy Way to Drop Your Grievances
Want to stay current with Arthur’s writing? Sign up to get an email every time a new column comes out. In 15th-century Germany, there was an expression for a chronic complainer: Greiner, Zanner, which can be translated as “whiner-grumbler.” It was no

Related Books & Audiobooks