remember 12-12-2000 was the day of infamy
Anyone remember the great court clerk of Florida Craig Waters?
He announced both Florida rulings (for Gore)
and remember the US Supreme court made 2 rulings that fateful day
7 to 2 to send it BACK to Florida for final decision
BUT
5 to 4 that said basically up yours Al Gore, time ran out, nah nah nah nah nah
but Florida went both times for Gore, and would have a 3rd time
from Wiki-
Craig Waters (born 1956) has been the public information officer of the Florida Supreme Court in Tallahassee since June 1, 1996. He is best known as the public spokesman for the Court during the 2000 presidential election controversy, when he frequently appeared on worldwide newscasts announcing decisions of the Florida Supreme Court. These decisions are known to history as Bush v. Gore.
Waters announced the result of Florida Supreme Court decisions to a global television audience.
The first occurred on November 21, 2000, when Waters' announced a court decision extending the vote-counting deadline previously set by Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris. The second was on December 8, 2000, when Waters announced a decision requiring a statewide recount of certain ballots. The United States Supreme Court overruled this last decision on December 12, 2000.
Waters later told a Tallahassee newspaper reporter: "My role as Court spokesman back then is something great to have in your past, once it proves to be a success. But I can tell you that the success was by no means guaranteed at the time. I came to work every day for more than a month in the fall of 2000 knowing there were a thousand ways to fail and millions of people watching."
A prolific writer and scholar, Waters' works include "Waters' Dictionary of Florida Law" published by London-based Butterworths, a three-volume treatise "AIDS and Florida Law" also published by Butterworths,and several dozen scholarly articles on various subjects generally related to civil rights, AIDS and disability law, court emergency preparedness,and the use of technology to improve court and media relations. He is coauthor of the only comprehensive scholarly article on Florida Supreme Court protocol and jurisdiction.
In the fall of 2008, Waters published a detailed article in the Journal of Appellate Practice & Process on the groundbreaking techniques he used in coordinating media relations at the Florida Supreme Court during the 2000 election cases. The article is titled "Technological Transparency: Appellate Court & Media Relations after Bush v. Gore
In 1997, Waters spearheaded a project that put all Florida Supreme Court arguments on live television, cable, satellite, and web broadcasts. He also was responsible for a pioneering effort to place all documents in high profile court cases on the Web for instant public access, which has been widely praised in the media. The media also credited Waters' work in 2000 with putting pressure on federal courts to provide the public greater technological access to their proceedings.
Prior to attending law school, Waters was a reporter in the Tallahassee capital press corps, covering state government and the state Supreme Court he eventually would work for. His experience as a statehouse journalist greatly influenced his approach to court and media relations. Prior to Waters becoming the court public information officer in 1996, the Florida Supreme Court routinely avoided contact with media.
Waters brought an end to that approach, first by putting large amounts of public information on the Florida Supreme Court website he maintained starting in 1995. In September 1997 in cooperation with Florida State University, Waters launched the first comprehensive program to broadcast all court arguments live on television, via satellite, on cable systems, and in webcasts. That program, now called "Gavel to Gavel" remains in place today.
Waters attended Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island as an undergraduate, receiving his degree with honors in 1979. He received his Juris Doctor with honors from the University of Florida College of Law (now the Levin College of Law) in 1986 after working for four years as a journalist with the Gannett newspapers in Pensacola and Tallahassee. In law school, he served as a management editor of the Florida Law Review. Before college, Waters attended public schools in Pensacola, graduating from J. M. Tate High School. A native of Pensacola, Florida, he has been a member of the Florida Bar since 1987 and currently also is communications counsel to the Florida Supreme Court.
= new reply since forum marked as read
