Key ID’s 

Chapter 31: From Cold War to Culture Wars, 1980-2000 

1. AIDS Epidemic

• The disease AIDS was first identified in 1981. Initially, it was assumed to be a disease of gay men. This had two effects: research and funding were slower in coming than they might have been for disease affecting other groups, and the actions of gay activists lobbying for more AIDS funding helped to spur the development of the gay rights movement.

2. Fall of the Berlin Wall—1989

• Following the fall of the communist government in Poland, an event brought about by the Solidarity movement, communist governments across Eastern Europe collapsed. The Soviet Union no longer was willing to use force to keep Eastern European communists under control. In December, the Berlin Wall itself was opened to free passage.

• This was generally seen as the event marking the end of the Cold War.

3. Reagan’s Election and the Modern Conservative Movement—1980 

• Liberal policies had dominated American politics since FDR’s election in 1932. Reagan’s election marked the ascendance of conservative values including support for lower taxes, support for traditional moral values (e.g., opposition to abortion and gay rights), support for a strong military, and opposition to government social programs and the spending they required.

4. Reaganomics 

• Ronald Reagan’s economic program was based on supply-side economics, the theory that if taxes were cut, this would stimulate the economy, putting more people to work, and eventually actually increasing tax receipts. Reagan persuaded Congress to cut income taxes by 25% over three years.

• Reagan also believed that reducing government regulation of business would stimulate the economy by making businesses more efficient. Carter had begun deregulation; Reagan extended it to savings and loans, transportation, environment, and broadcasting. 

• In addition, Reagan hoped to balance the budget while increasing defense spending. Accordingly, he attempted to cut social programs such as school lunches, job training, and mass transit. The budget was not balanced, and the national debt nearly tripled during the Reagan years.

5. Supply-side economics (NOT in OpenStax) 

• Economic theory that underlay Ronald Reagan's tax and spending cuts. 

• Contrary to Keynesianism, supply-side theory declared that government policy should aim to increase the supply of goods and services, rather than the demand for them. It held that lower taxes and decreased regulation would increase productivity by providing increased incentives to work, thus increasing productivity and the tax base.

6. Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PACTO) decertification – 1981 

• PACTO was a trade union established in 1968, and in 1981 they entered new contract negations with the FAA. PATCO employees wanted a 32-hour work week, a $10,000 raise for all air-traffic controllers, and a better retirement package. 

• On August 3, 1981, about 13,000 PATCO walked off of their jobs in protest after bargaining talks with the FAA stalled. Reagan ordered them to return within 48 hours or be fired. Reagan held his ground, and most of the PATCO air-traffic controllers were fired and banned from working for the FAA. PACTO is then decertified as a union in October. 

• The Clinton Administration ended the prohibition of the FAA to hire PATCO workers and to this date, roughly 850 former PATCO members have been hired in the FAA. 

7. The Heritage Foundation

• The Heritage Foundation, founded in 1973, is a conservative public policy research organization and think tank. Its mission is “to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense.”

• The organization expanded and gained national prominence under Reagan’s administration. He used their handbook (coincidently published in 1981) - Mandate for Leadership: Principles to Limited government, Expand Freedom and Strengthen America - to guide his administration. 

8. A Nation at Risk Report—1983 (NOT in OpenStax)

• With German and Japanese businesses outperforming US businesses in the 1970s and 1980s, education reformers pointed at the nation’s schools as the source of the problem. The report A Nation at Risk argued that the American economy lagged because American schools were of poor quality.

• Reformers proposed longer school days, a longer school year, and tougher standards for students.

9. Christian Conservatives

• Although Christian conservatives had traditionally shunned political involvement, after Roe v. Wade and other social changes, they increasingly became active in politics, supporting conservative candidates

• The Moral Majority—1979-1989. Founded by fundamentalist minister Jerry Falwell, the Moral Majority was a political action group designed to advance the concerns of conservative Christians: support for school prayer and the teaching of creationism; opposition to abortion, the Equal Rights Amendment, gay rights, and the SALT agreements.

• Focus on the Family. Founded in 1977 by James Dobson, Focus on the Family opposes abortion, divorce, pornography, gambling, and gay rights. It supports traditional gender roles, school prayer, creationism, and abstinence-only sex education.

10. Televangelism (NOT in OpenStax)

• With the continued rise of televisions since 1950, televangelism also continued to rise in popularity. Similar to the radio evangelists in the early 20^th century (e.g., Billy Sunday), televangelists used TV to preach to millions. The most prominent were Billy Graham, Oral Roberts, and Pat Robertson. 

• Televangelists also comprised the Christian Conservatives and helped fuel the New Right of the 1970s-2000s. 

11. The War on Drugs, Law and Order, and Mass Incarceration 

• The War on Drugs originally began under Nixon’s administration; in fact, most presidents after Nixon employed a “War on Drugs” campaign/policies due to its effectiveness in gathering votes. Reagan was no different. 

• However, by Reagan’s administration, crime was at an all-time high (1980 was when most crimes spiked). Generally speaking, since 1980, all types of crime have decreased. Furthermore, a new drug was appearing on the streets: crack cocaine. Crack was cheap, which is why it was seen as such a problem. First Lady Nancy Reagan started the “Just Say No” initiative. Remember DARE? That was started in LA in 1983!

• Both the War on Drugs movement and the law and order movement would combine. This movement peaked in 1990 when California enacted the “three-strikes” law, which mandated life imprisonment for three felony convictions, regardless of the crime. In 1995, a study showed that 43% of the 1,200 “third-strike” defendants were black. Looking back at Nixon’s mentioning of the War on Drugs and law-and-order, his domestic policy chief John Ehrlichman stated, “You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war OR black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. And then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did” (LoBianco, CNN, 2016).

• Why is this significant? Race and mass incarceration. Crack was often seen as the impoverished and black drug. Cocaine is regarded as the rich, white drug (not because it’s white…). Although a greater number of crack addicts are white, a majority of crack users who are sent to jail are black. Check out this fact sheet from the Drug Policy Alliance in 2018. 

• If you have access to Netflix, I highly recommend 13^th. Out of all of the movies I have recommended throughout the year, this documentary should be watched first!

12. Vietnam Syndrome

• The Vietnam Syndrome – a debilitating illness that results in hesitancy to use military force overseas. Symptoms include CIA operations, small, joint-task force operations conducted with various international institutions such as the UN and NATO, speeches from an actor-turned-president, Star Wars (Strategic Defense Initiative), and a global arms race that effectively destroys the USSR economically. Known remedies include the blitzkrieg of a Middle Eastern country to ensure democratic stability and monarchical control of oil reserves. 

13. US Invasion of Grenada—1983

• After a coup brought a leftist government to power on this Caribbean island, Reagan sent US forces to oust the leftists and replace them with a government friendly to the United States.

14. The Reagan Doctrine

• Ronald Reagan opposed the policy of détente that presidents since Nixon had followed regarding the Soviet Union. To Reagan, the Soviet Union was the “Evil Empire;” containment was not enough. Instead, Reagan sought to roll back communist control where possible. 

• Based on this doctrine, Reagan supported the anti-Soviet mujahedeen in Afghanistan and the contras in Nicaragua (eventually leading to the Iran-Contra scandal). 

• However, in his second term, Reagan held four summit meetings with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in which they forged a close, if wary, relationship. Eager for a lasting legacy as a peacemaker, Reagan pursued arms control agreements, even discussing a complete elimination of all nuclear weapons at the 1986 Reykjavik summit.

15. Constructive Engagement in South Africa (NOT in OpenStax)

• In the 1980’s protests mounted against the apartheid regime in South Africa. Many called for disinvestment from South Africa; for example, some universities got rid of stocks from companies doing business in South Africa. The intent was to put economic pressure on the government to end apartheid.

• Reagan took a different view, arguing that continued investment in South Africa gave America the opportunity and the leverage to pressure South Africa to change. This approach was called constructive engagement.

16. Iran-Contra—1986

• The US had poor relations with Iran as a result of the 1979 hostage situation. In 1983 the US sent peacekeeping troops to Lebanon. The Islamic group Hezbollah thought the US favored Christian forces and took several Americans hostage. The US thought Hezbollah was under the influence of Iran and sought better relations with Iran as a way of getting the American hostages released.

• In Nicaragua in 1979, the Sandinistas, a socialist group headed by Daniel Ortega came to power. Concerned about the spread of communism, Reagan opposed the Sandinistas and aided the contras, a group of Nicaraguans attempting to overthrow Ortega. However, when Congress learned that the CIA had helped the contras mine harbors and sabotage power plants, it placed a ban on aid to the contras.

• Oliver North, a member of Reagan’s National Security Council staff, helped organize a plan to aid the contras and recover the hostages. The US sold arms to Iran (Reagan himself had banned any arms sales to Iran because of its support of terrorism) to use against Iraq (America’s ally). The Iranians were grossly overcharged for the weapons, and the extra money was sent to the contras.

• When this came to light, North took much of the blame. Reagan claimed that he could not remember whether or not he had authorized the operation. Reagan’s standing in opinion polls remained strong.  

17. Strategic Defense Initiative (Star Wars)

• This was Reagan’s 1983 proposal for a space-based missile defense system. Reagan’s refusal to bargain this away put pressure on the Soviets to try to match US military spending.

18. Glasnost & Perestroika

• When Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the Soviet Union in 1985, he saw the need for reform of the Soviet system. Glasnost means openness. Gorbachev wanted to reduce the secrecy of the USSR and allow greater freedom of speech and political freedom.

• Perestroika means restructuring. Gorbachev saw the need to implement market reforms to revitalize the sickly Soviet economy.

• These changes necessitated a reduction in military spending and an increased focus on the consumer economy. More importantly, these changes helped bring about an end to the Cold War. On Christmas Day, 1991, Gorbachev resigned his office; the following day the USSR was formally dissolved.

19. INF Treaty—1987

• This treaty between the US and USSR banned all intermediate-range nuclear missiles from Europe. This was the first time an entire category of existing weapons had been banned.

• The Trump Administration removed the US from the treaty in 2018. 

20.  “Read my lips, NO NEW TAXES.”

• Bush earned the Republican nomination to run for president after stating at the Republican Convention, “read my lips: NO NEW TAXES.” However, as he entered the White House, he soon discovered it was going to be difficult to continue Reaganomics while balancing the budget and reducing the deficit. 

• By 1990, Bush was out of options, and he had to compromise with a Democratic Congress; the 1990 budget would cut government expenditures and raise taxes. 

21. Savings & Loan Bailout—1989 (NOT in OpenStax)

• Freed from government regulations, hundreds of savings and loans made unsound loans on speculative real estate deals. Nearly 600 S & L’s went bankrupt, threatening depositors’ savings. The Bush administration set up a fund to repay depositors. The total cost was nearly $500 billion. 

22. Exxon Valdez—1989 (NOT in OpenStax)

• Although George H.W. Bush had campaigned on the promise to be the “environmental president,” his record on the environment was mixed. Symbolic of this was the Exxon Valdez oil spill. This shipwreck dumped more than 10 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska’s coastal waters, killing thousands of sea birds and severely damaging the fishing industry in the area.

Bush and the New World Order 

23. Tiananmen Square—1989 (NOT in OpenStax)

• A pro-democracy movement in China was crushed by force, killing hundreds, when the Chinese government sent tanks to disperse the student demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

• The Bush administration protested but decided it was better to maintain diplomatic relations with China than to make a stronger protest by breaking relations. 

24. Fall of the Berlin Wall—1989

• Following the fall of the communist government in Poland, an event brought about by the Solidarity movement, communist governments across Eastern Europe collapsed. The Soviet Union no longer was willing to use force to keep Eastern European communists under control. In December, the Berlin Wall itself was opened to free passage.

• This was generally seen as the event marking the end of the Cold War.

25. Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I)

• Although proposed by Reagan, START was signed (between the US and USSR), ratified, and put into effect by George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. By 2001, START resulted in the removal of 80% of all strategic nuclear weapons in “known” existence. 

• There have been several treaty attempts for arms reduction between the US and USSR (START II and III). In 2010, the Obama Administration and the Russian Federation signed NEW START which focused on reducing strategic nuclear missile launchers. 

26. US Invasion of Panama—1989

• Concerned about the flow of illegal drugs through Panama, President Bush ordered a US invasion. Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, formerly on the CIA payroll, had been accepting bribes to allow drugs to pass through Panama on the way to the US. Noriega was captured and sentenced to life in prison.

27. Gulf War I—1991

• Iraq’s Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in August 1990 in a dispute over oil fields on the border of the two nations. It seemed possible that Iraq could continue into Saudi Arabia, giving Iraq control over almost half of the world’s oil.

• President Bush assembled a coalition of twenty-eight countries, including some Arab states, to oppose Iraq. This was known as Operation Desert Shield. When sanctions did not faze Iraq, the US-led coalition, with UN approval, attacked in January 1991 (Operation Desert Storm) and quickly pushed Iraq out of Kuwait.

• The war restored American confidence, shaky since Vietnam, that it could effectively flex its military muscles overseas.

28. Americans with Disabilities Act – 1990 

• Extended civil right protections and guaranteed equal opportunity in public accommodations to those with physical or mental disabilities. The act defined disability as a “physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities.” 

29. Planned Parenthood v. Casey—1992 (NOT in OpenStax)

• Although this case affirmed the basic right to abortion established in Roe v. Wade, this was seen as a victory for pro-life forces in that it upheld a Pennsylvania law requiring informed consent and a twenty-four hour waiting period before an abortion could be performed. It also upheld a law mandating parental notification before a minor could have an abortion. 

30. Bush nominates Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court 

• After Thurgood Marshall, the first African American SC Justice announced his retirement in 1991, Bush nominated Clarence Thomas to the SCOTUS. 

• The nomination received criticism after Anita Hill, a former legal advisor for Thomas, accused Thomas of sexual harassment. In October 1991, Hill testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The testimony of both Hill and Thomas were televised, in which Thomas would state was a “high-tech lynching.” The Senators on the committee declared Hill a liar and questioned her sanity. Other women could have supported Hill’s testimony, but none were called upon by the committee. Regardless of the testimony, Thomas was narrowly confirmed by the Senate, 52-48. 

• Clarence Thomas has served on the Supreme Court for 27 years. Many liberals question his engagement on the court due to his limited oral questioning and sparse oral opinions. However, conservatives have praised Thomas’s work as he continues to contribute to justices who are more inclined to speak.

• In a recent Q&A, Thomas declared he had no intention to retire any time soon, stating he can still put in 30 years. If this remains true, Thomas would serve 67 years on the SC and be 100 when he retires. 

• Check out this podcast about the confirmation and testimony. 

31. Election(s) of 1992 

• Despite the successes overseas, many people were unpopular with Bush’s domestic policies. This included his broken promise of raising taxes. This allowed Bill Clinton and his VP Al Gore to successfully campaign as New Democrats. 

• The Independent candidate, Ross Perot, received over 19,000,000 votes, a considerable margin for a third-party candidate since the election of 1912. 

• The 1992 election is considered to be the Year of the Woman. A record 47 women were elected to the House (24 for the first time!). Four women, including Diane Feinstein, were elected to the US Senate. This was a clear rebuke to the 1991 Anita Hill Testimony. 

• If you compare and contrast 1991 with 2018, you are going to see drastic similarities. One of the only differences, in fact, was that in 1991 there were no women who served on the Senate Judiciary Committee. 

• Currently, there are 25 women in the Senate (25%) and 102 women in the House (23%). Meanwhile, 50.5% of the US population is female. 

• If you would like more information about the Year of the Woman, check out this podcast. 

32. Balancing the budget 

• During Clinton’s administration, education was given more money, interest rates were kept low to encourage private investment, and protectionist tariffs were eliminated. The Earned Income Tax Credit reduced the tax burden on poor families. A Democratic Congress in 1993 also raised taxes on the richest 1.2% of Americans, lowered taxes on the poorest fifteen million low-income tax, and offered tax breaks to small businesses. If you read OpenStax, this hopefully sounds familiar. 

• The result of all of this was a massive reduction of the US deficit by 1998. The US reached a surplus budget of $236.2 billion by the end of Clinton’s administration. 

• As a note, DEFICIT AND DEBT ARE NOT THE SAME THINGS. By the end of 2000, the US debt at $5.6 trillion. 

33. Repeal of Glass-Steagall – 1999 (NOT in OpenStax)

• Remember Glass-Steagall from the New Deal? This act effectively separated commercial banking and investment activities. Before 1929, banks were investing their deposits and interests into the stock-market and other investments. This is what aided in bringing upon the Great Depression after the Stock Market Crash of 1929. 

• In 1999, Congress voted to “update” the Great Depression rules for the 21^st century. Legislators saw the repeal of Glass-Steagall as allowing for commercial banks to grow bigger and better to compete in a globalized world economy. 

• What do you think happened when the firewall between commercial banks and investment companies was torn down? Exactly. Many of the factors that led to the 2008 Great Recession can be linked to the repeal of Glass-Steagall. For example, if Glass-Steagall were in place, Citigroup (which exploded after Glass-Steagall was repealed) would not have had such a significant impact on the Great Recession. The same can be said for American International Group, which contributed to the recession by dealing in loan/mortgage securities. 

34. North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)—1994 

• NAFTA created a free-trade zone removing most tariffs and trade barriers on trade among the US, Canada, and Mexico.

• It was controversial among labor unions who feared that US jobs would be shipped to low-wage Mexico and among environmentalists who feared that manufacturing would shift to Mexico where environmental protections were less stringent.

• After threatening to abandon NAFTA, the trade agreement was “re-written” in November 2018. It is now known as the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). Basically, the USMCA is the 21^st-century update of NAFTA. Do you think the names of trade organizations (and their updated names) will have an impact on future diplomacy? 

35. The World Wide Web

• Development of the WWW was begun in 1989 at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. The WWW was designed to share research via HTTP, to assist in particle physics. In 1992, they commercialized the World Wide Web. Bonus fact: The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is at CERN! 

• Then, in 1993 the WWW got a boost with the creation of a web browser known as Mosaic, which was developed in the US at the University of Illinois. This Web browser applied “point-and-click” operations to the WWW. Two years later, Microsoft co-opted Mosaic into Internet Explorer and combined it with their Windows 95 operating system. Within a year (1996), Internet Explorer was the most popular Web browser (for Mr. Perley, this is really funny because he barely remembers Windows 95 and using Internet Explorer). 

36. Globalization, Technology, and the Internet 

• In short, as the Internet and various other technologies (cellular devices, MP3s, CDs, SMS text messaging, the PlayStation, 1998 iMac, pagers, Palm Pilots, and Nintendo 64) continued to grow, expand, and bridge the world together, the globe became smaller and smaller. 

• Since the “European” discovery of the New World in 1492, globalization has been increasing at a slow pace. Increasingly more efficient and complex technology such as steamships, telegraphs, airplanes, telecommunications/radio, TV, satellites, jet airliners, and now the Internet has made the world exponentially more connected than it was in 1492.  The Internet, by far, has had the most significant impact on globalization. 

37. Oklahoma City Bombing 

• In 1995, a homemade bomb concealed in a rental truck exploded next to a federal building in Oklahoma City. 168 people were killed, and more than 500 were injured. This was considered the worse terrorist attacks in the US until September 11, 2001. 

• The terrorists were two white, former US Army soldiers. They were associated with the extreme right-wing and militant Patriot movement. 

38. Health Security Act – Failure to pass universal coverage

• Bill Clinton campaigned heavily on healthcare in the 1992 election. It was one of his greatest priorities during his first-term. After immediately entering the White House in January 1993, Clinton created a task force, headed by the First Lady, Hillary Clinton. The task force’s job would be to create a healthcare plan that would provide universal healthcare coverage to all Americans and resident aliens. 

• The Health Security Act, a massive, 1000-page bill came out of Hillary Clinton’s Taskforce; however, there was great opposition from Republicans and conservatives who saw universal coverage as making the federal government too big. The bill was defeated in 1994 right before the Midterm Elections, where the Republicans would gain control of both the House and Senate – a first since the 1950s. 

39. The Contract with America—1994

• In the 1994 midterm elections, Republicans gained control of both the House and the Senate for the first time in forty years. Credit was given in part to the Contract with America, a set of ten proposals House Republicans promised to support. In general, the ten proposals called for deregulation, tax cuts, reform of social programs, and a balanced budget.

• Although the House quickly passed nine of the ten, only three of the least controversial measures eventually became law. Still, the Contract represented a change in the policy debate in Washington.

40. Don’t Ask; Don’t Tell—1993 

• For decades gays had been barred from serving in the US military. Bill Clinton as a candidate had pledged to lift that ban, but opposition from the military made it difficult to eliminate the ban entirely.

• Clinton announced a compromise known as Don’t Ask; Don’t Tell. Military officials were not supposed to inquire as to sexual orientation, an gays were allowed to serve in the military so long as they told no one of their sexual orientation. 

• In 2010 the Pentagon concluded that homosexuality posed no threat to military readiness and Congress passed a law allowing gays to serve openly in the military.

41. Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) – 1996 

• Rumors of Hawaii legalizing same-sex marriage resulted in the introduction of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) on May 7, 1996. With overwhelming support (veto-proof margins), the act was sent to Clinton in September where he signed without hesitation. 

• DOMA’s two primary sections were the law of the land until 2013: 

  • Section 2. Powers reserved to the states: No State, territory, or possession of the United States, or Indian tribe, shall be required to give effect to any public act, record, or judicial proceeding of any other State, territory, possession, or tribe respecting a relationship between persons of the same sex that is treated as a marriage under the laws of such other State, territory, possession, or tribe, or a right or claim arising from such relationship.

  • Section 3. Definition of marriage: In determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, or of any ruling, regulation, or interpretation of the various administrative bureaus and agencies of the United States, the word 'marriage' means only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word 'spouse' refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.

• In the Senate, Senator Wyden of OR and Senator Feinstein of CA were two of the fourteen to vote Nay. Former VP Joe Biden voted Yea. In the House, Bernie Sanders was one of the few dissenting votes. 

42. Oklahoma City Bombing 

• In 1995, a homemade bomb concealed in a rental truck exploded next to a federal building in Oklahoma City. 168 people were killed and more than 500 were injured. This was considered the worse terrorist attacks in the US until September 11, 2001. 

• The terrorists were two white, former US Army soldiers. They were associated with the extreme right-wing and militant Patriot movement. 

43. Oslo Accords – 1993-1995

• The Accords were a set of agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, mediated by Clinton. Agreements resulted in Israel allowing for limited self-rule to Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip and West Bank. The second settlement was reached a year later between Israel and Jordan. 

44. Clinton’s Impeachment—1998 

• Bill Clinton had been under investigation by a special prosecutor for several years, originally because of a real estate deal in Arkansas on the White River. The deal did not pan out, and Clinton lost money, but there were accusations that as a political figure, he had received special favors from a savings and loan.

• Paula Jones, a state employee in Arkansas when Clinton was governor, accused Clinton of sexual harassment and sued him. At a deposition, Clinton was asked about his relationships with other government employees, including Monica Lewinsky. Clinton denied a sexual relationship with Lewinsky. However, evidence emerged of a sexual relationship, and the special prosecutor recommended impeachment to the House of Representatives.

• The House charged Clinton with perjury and obstruction of justice. The Senate rejected both charges, and Clinton remained in office through the end of his second term. During the impeachment proceedings, Clinton’s public approval ratings soared to nearly 70%, the highest level of his presidency.

45. Bush v. Gore—2000

• In one of the closest elections in American history, Democrat Al Gore won the popular vote and led Republican George W. Bush in the electoral vote. However, the results in Florida were in dispute; there were charges that minority voters had been turned away at the polls, that the butterfly ballots were confusing, and that hanging chads (the paper bits punched out on a punch-card ballot) had caused voting machine miscounts. Bush led by about 500 votes. Gore wanted a recount in several counties.

• The Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision blocked the recount, saying that a lack of uniform statewide standards for determining what constituted a legal vote violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. That is, different counties had different standards for determining “the clear intent of the voter.” Therefore, the recount had to be halted, Bush received Florida’s electoral votes, and he became president.