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.”