Word: harmfulness
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...first time. Then the U.S. Supreme Court joined the battle. In another acrimonious split decision--this one 5 to 4--the Justices halted the recount and scheduled oral arguments for Monday on George W. Bush's claim that the manual counts are unconstitutional and could do "irreparable harm" to his candidacy. Al Gore's top lawyer, David Boies, was eating lunch with another hotshot lawyer, Stephen Zack, when the news came over the television. Boise threw up his hands and cried, "What possible irreparable harm could they be talking about?" At that moment, 700 miles to the north, an aide...
...most intriguing issues is the question of irreparable harm. To get a stay, a party has to show it will suffer permanent damage without it. The damage of halting the count seems clear: it will be hard for Gore to win the election if the counting is put off much longer. But it is Bush who got the stay--and Bush who the majority said would be harmed if the counting continued. What would the harm be? It could, Scalia writes, cast "a cloud upon what he claims to be the legitimacy of his election." It's a tricky argument...
...pulls out, there would be two consequences: First, Kosovo, but possibly also Bosnia and Macedonia, would plunge into, if not outright war, then at least a permanent state of low-intensity conflict. But even more important for Washington, I don't think the U.S. can pull troops from harm's way in the Balkans and then still demand command and control over NATO troops in Europe. The U.S. would lose its moral claim to maintain the tradition that the commander of NATO in Europe is an American general. And I'm not really sure that Bush is prepared to have...
...calling this a 7-2 ruling, the reality is perfectly clear. In the end, the justices were split right down the middle on the ideological and partisan lines that were crystal-clear even before they granted Bush's ludicrous request for an emergency stay based on the potential "irreparable harm" of a recount...
...case if we insist on following technicalities," says University of Miami law professor Mary Coombs. "But ultimately the application went out to the right person, who ended up being able to vote for whom he wanted. Tossing out the ballots seems to be a very peculiar remedy for the harm that happened...