WASHINGTON, DECEMBER 9: The Florida Supreme court threw the month-old presidential election wide open again on Friday, giving Democrat Al Gore a long-sought legal victory and cutting Republican George W. Bush's statewide lead to 154 votes.By the slimmest of margins - one vote - Florida's highest court ordered 4-3 that 9,000 disputed ballots in Miami-Dade County be recounted as Gore had requested, and added that other ballots across the state be looked at too.The Florida Supreme court also ordered that Gore get 215 votes from Palm Beach County and 168 votes from Miami-Dade County from earlier recounts. That would leave Bush with just a 154-vote lead, out of six million cast in Florida.Republican George W. Bush's lawyers immediately appealed to the U.S Supreme court to halt the hand recounts. His lawyers want the Florida ruling put on hold until the justices act on the appeal.``This court's review is . essential in this case in order to protect the integrity of the electoral process for president and vice president of the United States and to correct the serious constitutional errors made by the Florida Supreme court,'' Bush lawyer Theodore Olson said.Olson said there was a ``profound national interest in ensuring the fairness and finality'' of an election for the highest office in the land, and warned that the consequence of the Florida ruling could be a ''constitutional crisis.''Bush's lawyers said the case presented the following three issues:- whether the Florida Supreme court erred in establishing post-election, judicially created standards that threaten to overturn the certified Florida results, violating federal law by changing the rules after the November seven election.- whether the Florida Supreme court established new standards for resolving presidential contests that conflict with legislative enactment and that therefore violate the U.S. Constitution.- whether the use of ''arbitrary, standardless and selective'' manual recounts violate the constitutional rights to due process and equal protection under the law.Gore's response is expected to be filed late on Saturday. The Supreme Court then could decide whether to grant the stay, and could possibly decide whether it will hear Bush's appeal.
