system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: how the US Supreme Court decided the 2000 Presidential Election, and how is the decision viewed today?
gpt
With all states except Florida counted, neither candidate had the majority of 270 electoral votes they needed to win.  The 25 electoral votes from Florida would give either candidate the Presidency.

The Florida vote was extremely close.  There was a long process of a hand count which ended with Bush leading by less than 1000 votes.

Gore requested recounts in only heavily Democratic districts.  The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that that approach was unconstitutional because it did not treat all ballots in the state equally, especially with different criteria being used to recount in each county.

Probably the most controversial part was that the U.S. Supreme Court also ruled that there was not enough time remaining before the legal deadline to conduct a full state recount.  This basically ended all legal challenges and with Bush in the lead, he was the winner.  The ruling had a 5-4 split.

If the selective recount Gore requested would have happened, Bush still would have won.

If a state-wide recount would have happened, using the standards the election officials stated they would have used, Bush would have won.

If a state-wide recount would have happened, using some other theoretical standards, Gore would have won.