Clinton & Obama to Reprise Bush v. Gore?

The Wall Street Journal yesterday ran an op-ed piece by former Solicitor General Ted Olson in which Olson speculates about the possible legal hijinks that could result from a continuing nomination deadlock between Democrat candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. While I disagree with Olson’s implication (unintended, I expect) that the Electoral College system is somehow comparable to the Democrats nominating process in its capacity for producing what he describes as “Rube Goldbergesque” results, I nonetheless found Olson’s analysis interesting. If nothing else, the current nominating contests – particularly on the Democrat side – highlight the fact that the nation is divided, at least politically, no less closely than it was in 2000. Should Mr.Obama and Ms. Clinton find themselves in court we will no doubt find, as we did in Florida in 2000, that the law is not a tool that is very well suited to resolving such political divisions.