By the time of the 2000 election, Roe v. Wade had been the bête noire of the American right for nearly three decades. For justices like Scalia and Thomas, the ruling epitomized the sins of an activist Court, adrift from its constitutional moorings. In Bush v. Gore, the Court came full circle. Constitutional law had become the continuation of politics by other means. The lesson for conservatives was Justice William Brennan’s Rule of Five. Roe was of course about abortion, whereas Bush v. Gore was about an election. But they were flip sides of the same coin at the Court: “If you have five votes
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