Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor suggested last week that the high court should have stayed out of the 2000 presidential election dispute between George W. Bush and Al Gore.
"It took the case and decided it at a time when it was still a big election issue," the 83-year-old told the Chicago Tribune editorial board last Friday. "Maybe the court should have said, 'We're not going to take it, goodbye.'"
O'Connor, appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, was in the majority in the high court's 5-4 decision that stopped the recount and sealed Bush's election. She has long lamented the controversy over the decision that she said gave the court a "less-than-perfect reputation."
But in the past, O'Connor has said the court had no choice but to take on the case. She retired in 2006.
O'Connor was in Chicago to promote "iCivics," an online curriculum set up in a video game format, the Tribune reported.
