A new trove of documents detailing the late Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens' tenure on the high court, including papers dealing with the Bush vs. Gore 2000 election, is being released by the Library of Congress, NBC News has reported.
Stevens, a liberal member of the court, died in 2019 at the sage of 99. NBC News noted that he had dissented from the conservative-majority court in its ruling that ended a recount in Florida and handed George W. Bush a victory over Democrat Al Gore.
The network pointed out that some of the highlights from the documents included barely legible handwritten notes by Stevens during a private meeting with the rest of the justices to discuss the election ruling.
Stevens seemed to note that conservative Justice Clarence Thomas said the Florida Supreme Court "did not give us an option" because of the way it decided the case. Thomas joined the majority of the justices in overturning the state court's implementation of the recount.
A spokesperson for the Library of Congress said researchers had not transcribed Stevens' notes on the election case.
The documents were made public on Tuesday and relate to his 35-year tenure on the court. Stevens had donated his papers to the Library of Congress. A batch of his documents was also released in 2020.
After his death from a stroke, The Associated Press described him as, "the bow-tied, independent-thinking, Republican-nominated justice who unexpectedly emerged as the Supreme Court's leading liberal."
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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