WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday that it decided against allowing televised coverage of the historic arguments on the hand counting of ballots in Florida's contested presidential election.In a letter to the cable television network C-SPAN, Chief Justice William Rehnquist said a majority of the nine-member high court wanted to continue its present practice of allowing print media coverage and public attendance of arguments, but not allow cameras or audio coverage.
C-SPAN asked the court to permit televised coverage of the 90 minutes of arguments on Dec. 1 on whether the Florida Supreme Court overstepped its authority by allowing hand counted ballots to be included in the state's final tally.
The case could determine whether Republican George W. Bush or Democrat Al Gore ultimately wins the White House. Bush has been certified as the winner in Florida by just 537 votes out of nearly 6 million cast, but Gore has vowed to contest the results in court.
Rehnquist, citing the public interest in the case, said a transcript from the arguments will be made available later in the day.
