Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
By CHRIS LAVIN
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 30, 2000
The contest between Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush has spawned a series of legal actions throughout Florida and around the country. The cases are complex and fast moving, involving a variety of courts and different levels within court systems. Here's a quick look at the way cases come to court and what each type of court looks for.
In general, most legal challenges to this election are controversies involving Florida state law, such as Gore's claim that state law allows a candidate to have ballots hand counted in a close race. State challenges generally begin in Florida circuit court. There a judge will set a hearing date or conduct a trial and issue a ruling. Circuit court rulings can be appealed to one of several district courts of appeal, often referred to as DCAs, set up to hear challenges from a collection of the state's circuit courts. DCA rulings can be appealed to the Florida Supreme Court in Tallahassee.
Appellate courts such as the DCAs and the Florida Supreme Court do not conduct trials in which witnesses give testimony. Rather, these courts review the records of trials and hearings conducted at the circuit court level, and hear arguments challenging the way the law was applied in those trials.
In many ways, the federal court system mirrors the state court system.
There are federal district courts throughout each region, generally in larger cities. There are ones in Tampa, Orlando and Miami, for example. The judges for these courts are appointed by the president of the United States and serve for life. These judges conduct a wide variety of hearings and trials in which witnesses testify about a range of violations of federal laws or business disputes involving parties from different states. Rulings in a federal district court are appealed to a circuit court of appeals, a group of 10 or more judges, that hears appeals from a large region.
Appeals from Florida's federal circuit courts are heard at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. A judgment made by the 11th Circuit can be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Like the state appellate courts, the federal appeals courts do not conduct trials or hear witnesses.
The federal courts also serve a special oversight role within the judicial system. People who believe that rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution are being violated can ask a federal district judge to review their claim, even if the dispute involves state laws that are generally handled by state courts.
State death row prisoners, for example, always appeal their state convictions to federal courts, often claiming the state legal proceedings were flawed. Gov. George W. Bush's attorneys did just this after the election, asking a federal district court judge to stop the hand counting of ballots because the procedures violated constitutional principles. That challenge moved through the district court and the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The U.S. Supreme Court then accepted part of that case.
In its role of final arbiter of constitutional issues, the U.S. Supreme Court also agreed to directly review the Florida Supreme Court's decision to allow manual recounts of ballots. In both cases, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the case Friday to determine whether the Florida rulings were consistent with the U.S. Constitution.
Meanwhile, other Florida state courts continue hearing other challenges from the Bush and Gore camps that involve other aspects of state election law.