As a Florida judge mulled over a marathon's worth of arguments about Vice President Al Gore '69's challenge to the state's certified election results, the U.S. Supreme Court continued to deliberate its own strand of election litigation.

The Florida litigants, in a paneled courtroom in Leon County, labored late into the night, focusing their final arguments on the legitimacy of manual recounts, and where they were more reliable than machine tabulations.

The Supreme Court case, Bush v. Palm Beach County Canvassing Board Friday, showcased more complex issues of constitutional law. The court agreed to accept the case after Bush appealed a Nov. 21 Florida Supreme Court ruling which held that Florida Secretary of State Katherine L. Harris had abused her discretion in deciding to reject vote totals that some counties wanted to include after Nov. 14 filing deadlines.

Arguing at the Supreme Court Friday for Bush, Theodore Olson asserted that the Florida Supreme Court had effectively upended Florida election law, thereby violating Chapter 3, Section 5 of the United States Code, (3 U.S.C. 5), which states that laws governing elections must be made in advance of the election.

Olson also argued that the Florida Supreme Court overstepped its bounds and acted in a capacity reserved for the Florida legislature. He noted that the Florida Supreme Court made reference to the Florida State Constitution in its decision, but that the state document should have been trumped by Article II of the U.S. Constitution, which states that the legislature should choose how presidential electors are selected.

Gore's attorney, Laurence H. Tribe'62, who is Tyler professor of constitutional law at Harvard Law School (HLS), disagreed.

He argued that 3 U.S.C. 5 is merely a guideline, not a statute set in stone, pointing out that a different section of the law contains remedies in the event that 3 U.S.C. 5 is not followed fully.

Tribe also claimed that, though the U.S. Constitution does give the legislature the power to choose electors, the legislature could delegate that power to the judicial branch.