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Editorials
Saturday, December 2, 2000High court
considers Florida
vote disputeThe issue: The U.S. Supreme Court has heard arguments about whether it should intervene in the presidential election dispute in Florida.
ARGUMENTS made by the Gore and Bush campaigns before the U.S. Supreme Court may not result in the final word about this year's presidential election, but they were nevertheless historic. The court's decision may settle important -- albeit arcane -- arguments about state versus federal law and thereby affect the outcome of the election.
At issue is a heretofore obscure 113-year-old federal law governing "federal elections and vacancies" and a section titled "determination of controversy as to appointment of electors." Texas Gov. George W. Bush maintains that the law should have prevented the Florida Supreme Court from allowing the recounting of votes in some counties after Florida's secretary of state had certified the vote totals.
Traditionally, Republicans have been defenders of states' rights. Yet here was a case where Bush asked the federal courts to intervene in a dispute between a state's executive and judicial branches. Federal courts, as a matter of law, shun such disputes, but the existence of the 1887 law may offer justification for intervening.
"We're looking for a federal issue," Justice Anthony M. Kennedy pointed out during arguments. "If the state Supreme Court relied on a federal issue and got it wrong, then you can be here."
The Supreme Court's decision, expected in a matter of days, may not end the Florida vote battle. The narrow lines on which the high court is expected to tread may not intersect the legal routes taken by several other lawsuits that the election dispute has spawned. Nor does it touch upon the potential of the Florida legislature calling a special session to appoint electors apart from whatever the courts have decided.
One important aspect of the Supreme Court ruling's effect in determining the next president could be the eventual makeup of the court. The next president is expected to appoint at least two Supreme Court justices over the next four years.
As important as that may be, the federal law at issue probably will return to the shelf to gather dust for an additional 113 years or more. Like the Supreme Court's decisions in the cases of the Pentagon Papers and the Watergate tapes, this ruling will make history but not necessarily law.
The Supreme Court's decision to release audio tapes of the arguments in the presidential election dispute immediately after the proceeding was unprecedented. For some years, the court has released such tapes at the end of the yearly term of the proceeding. The prompt release of the tapes in the election case was an insufficient adherence to the modern age of telecommunication.
C-Span requested that it be allowed to videotape the proceeding for live telecast, a process that has become routine in state courts around the country. In declining the request, the high court unfortunately rejected an opportunity to accept public access at a level that has become normal and even expected.
Ferry service idea
should be pursued
FERRY service between downtown and the Ewa area has been curtailed again, but the notion of commuting by water is not necessarily dead. The termination of the federally funded WikiWiki Ferry project that began more than a year ago between three Leeward Coast locations and Aloha Tower leaves hope among some commuters that similar services could be offered in the future.
Unlike a previous ferry service that ran for a short time between Barbers Point and Aloha Tower, the demonstration project -- with the help of $3 million in federal funds -- made stops at Barbers Point, Middle Loch and Iroquois Point, averaging 100 riders a week. Ferry commuters were enthusiastic about the service but the question of whether its use would be economically feasible remains.
The state Department of Transportation plans to compile a report including passenger surveys, ferry schedules, maintenance information and the number of vessels needed to run a ferry. Some companies have expressed an interest in resuming ferry service if the report shows it could be profitable.
"We hope there is an interested operator out there who will see the benefits of such a program and figure out how to supplement the commuter ferry with commercial operations to keep the cost down," said department spokeswoman Marilyn Kali.
The trick has seemed to be correlating the commuting time requirements with the scheduling of sunset dinner cruises. Once that problem is solved -- if it can be -- ferry service may become a mainstay of island commuting.
Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited PartnershipRupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor
