No, Bush v Gore didn’t decide the election

As part of the effort to delegitimize the Supreme Court so that Obama has something to run on in 2012, many liberals who should know better are repeating the canard that a Republican majority on the Court gave the 2000 election to George W. Bush.

James Fallows, in charging Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas with a “coup” described Bush v. Gore this way: “a presidential election is decided by five people, who don’t even try to explain their choice in normal legal terms.”