Five weeks after the presidential election of 2000, George W. Bush could finally be assured that he had won one of the closest of presidential contests in one of the most contested of presidential elections. Bush secured a slim Electoral College majority over his Democratic challenger, Vice President Al Gore (1948-; see box in Bill Clinton entry in volume 5), 271-266. The historic 2000 election marked the first time that the U.S. Supreme Court made a ruling on a presidential election. In a divided judgment (with five justices supporting, and four dissenting), the Court's ruling stopped a recounting of ballots in Florida, ending weeks of dramatic twists and turns of legal wrangling.

Bush became the fourth president to win in the Electoral College (see boxes), but not the popular vote. He was also the second president's son to be elected president of the United States. His...