Flip. Flop.

Ken Mehlman, today:

We need to make sure that every vote is counted.

Scalia in denying the same principle in Bush v. Gore, 531 US, by rejecting the dissenting opinion of Ginsberg, Souter, Stephens, and Breyer:

In deferring to state courts on matters of state law, we appropriately recognize that this Court acts as an ” ‘outside[r]’ lacking the common exposure to local law which comes from sitting in the jurisdiction.”
…
Rarely has this Court rejected outright an interpretation of state law by a state high court.
…
he Chief Justice’s casual citation of these cases might lead one to believe they are part of a larger collection of cases in which we said that the Constitution impelled us to train a skeptical eye on a state court’s portrayal of state law. But one would be hard pressed, I think, to find additional cases that fit the mold. As Justice Breyer convincingly explains, see post, at 5-9 (dissenting opinion), this case involves nothing close to the kind of recalcitrance by a state high court that warrants extraordinary action by this Court. The Florida Supreme Court concluded that counting every legal vote was the overriding concern of the Florida Legislature when it enacted the State’s Election Code.

Originally posted at: http://grumpasaurus.com/2006/11/08/flip-flop/