Ittir One hundred ten years fedzrorialfreedom NEWS: 76-DAILY CLASSIFIED: 764-0557 wwwmichigandaily cam Monday December 11, 2000 2-1 isiAs al Election returns. to high The Associated Press On the eve of historic U.S. Supreme Court, arguments, Al Gore's attorney said yesterday e vice president urgently needs a legal victo- ry to recount Florida's votes or "that's the end of the road" for his dogged drive to the presi- dency. A chorus ofjittery Democrats agreed. As both sides previewed their cases in legal fil- ings, George W Bush's lawyers asked the high court to overturn a Florida Supreme Court recount plan they said would "incite controversy, suspicion and lack of confidence" in the first presidential election of the 21st Century. Democ- .tic attorneys defended the Florida court. "Voters have important rights to have their bal- lots counted, and the magnitude of those rights dwarfs" any legal arguments raised by Bush, the. Adverse rulng oul be'en of te road'for vice president vice president's brief said. Though confident, midday yesterday, pitching tents and spreading in a machine count, and the legislative branch Gore's attorneys conceded publicly and privately sleeping bags across bone-chilling concrete in of government - not the courts - should that the odds are stacked against them. hopes of snaring a courtroom seat. determine the nation's 43rd president. As deeply divided as the country, the high Gore, who trails Bush by less than 200 votes The state's 25 electoral votes would put court justices voted 5-4 on Saturday to tem- out of 6 million cast, wants to recount about either man in the White House. porarily halt manual recounts in Florida and 45,000 "undervote" ballots throughout the A CNN/USA Today Gallup Poll conducted consider the landmark Bush v. Gore case. More state. Bush argues there is no fair way to count yesterday found a nearly even split over than 50 people lined up outside the court at the ballots that didn't register presidential votes whether the court should allow the recount to court continue - 47 percent for a recount and 49 percent against, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. The survey of 735 adults also found 72 per- cent think the Supreme Court will rule fairly in the case. But among people who identified them- selves as Bush supporters the figure was 87 per- cent, while among Gore supporters it was 54 percent. Neither side committed to giving up if the Supreme Court issues an adverse decision;, but even Gore's advisers conceded he has fewer options than Bush beyond the high court. "If no votes are counted, then I think that's the end of the road," said David Boies, who will argue the case for Gore. But the lawyer stopped short of saying his client would bow out if the Supreme Court ruled against him, See ELECTION, Page 7A ill I Students numb from By Yasi Kohen Daily Staff Reporter t ;-ND . __._. While the media, obsesse presidential election coverag ue to indulge political jun 24-hour election news upd students are now spending obsessing about final exams papers. In most other years the tial election would have en than a month ago, but this' toric counts, recounts -r even more recounts - ar some students batty. Many students say th have the time to pay a while others simply haveI est. "I just want it to be decid really care who gets it," L more Michelle Brown said w ing at Starbucks Coffee on S TO Street. Y. "I would kind of just lik coverage end. It's making a big debacle,' Busi- ness School senior Kirk Oldford said, adding that he has stopped paying as d by post- much attention to every new detail Ve, contin- reported by the news. "It's not that I kies with don't care. It's just going to be the ates, most same thing over and over again. I'm their time just waiting for the end to see what and term happens." Proofreading a paper at Angell presiden- Hall was more important to Oldford ided more than focusing on the events in year's his- Florida. He said he consistently and then pays attention to general news e driving events, and for him the election has become just another story. But with ey don't finals just around the corner, study ttention, mode has to set in. lost inter- While sitting at an Angell Hall com- puter finishing one of his last assign- ed. I don't ments for the semester, Engineering SA sopho- senior K. Mannah Kallon said he does hile study- not believe the outcome of the election outh State will affect his life. But Kallon said he doesn't care what e to see it See STUDENTS, Page 7A p- APPHeOT Andrew Alexander of Charlottesville, Va., protests in front of the U.S. Supree Court yesterda. The court will hear oral arguments In the Florida ballot recount case today Minimums, surchargesforbidden ® Stores and restaurants charge extra for credit card use, violating trust clauses By Louie Meizlish Daily Staff Reporter With credit cards a part of everyday life for many lege students, businesses often find they actually lose money by allowing customers to make small purchases with plastic. In response, some establishments set minimum amounts for credit transactions or add a surcharge when swiping a card through the cash register. The only problem: Minimum purchase amounts and surcharges are against credit card company poli- cy. Officials at Visa and MasterCard, the two most popular credit cards nationwide, said minimum amounts and surcharges are in violation of the agree- ments that stores sign when they agree to accept the cards. "That's against the rules," MasterCard spokes- woman Heidi Lowe said of credit surcharges. Lowe said setting a minimum amount is also a violation of the agreements that acquiring banks, the institutions that provide credit card service to the stores, sign with companies that wish to accept cred- See MINIMUMS, Page 7A Bedeviled Judge rules Wisconsin funding process illegal By Usa Koivu Daily Staff Reporter After a Supreme Court ruling last spring per- mitted universities to use mandatory student fees to fund student groups, U.S. District Judge John Shabaz ruled Friday that the way the University of Wisconsin distributes fees is illegal. The judge ruled that there is no guarantee the funds are being allocated in a viewpoint neutral basis, a requirement for the system according to the Supreme Court's opinion. The case, Kendra FIry v. University of Wiscon- sin System Board of Regents, challenged the viewpoint neutrality of the Wisconsin system. The system allows the student government to dis- tribute funds but also permits the chancellor of each campus to veto the decisions. The case stems from a lawsuit filed in 1996, in which Wisconsin student Scott Southworth claimed the allocation of mandatory student fees violated his First Amendment rights. In that case, Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System v. Southworth, Southworth said his money should not be used to fund any student group ideologically, religiously or politically offensive to his own beliefs. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last March that the university did have a right to collect student fees, but sent the case back to district court to examine the legality of the distribution method. According to the Supreme Court decision, "the First Amendment permits a public university to charge its students an activity fee used to fund a program to facilitate extracurricular student speech, provided that the program is viewpoint neutral." The ruling continues to say "the University exacts the fee at issue for the sole purpose of facilitating the free and open exchange of ideas by, and among, its students." Had the Supreme Court ruled against Wiscon- See FEES, Page 2A DAVID KIAZ/Daiy Engineering juniors Matt Olsofsky and Joe Tilchen examine the submarine ATLAS, which they are testing before their team builds a new model. Human Powere..d .S ba iio.epev.pares for race MJIE MAmRSHALL/Daiy Chris Young consoles LaVell Blanchard after he comes out of the game against Duke in Durham, N.C. Michigan lost, 104-61. Inside: Game coverage. Page lB. talun Gong members gather in Ann Arbor By Whitney Elliott Daily Staff Reporter With their eyes on setting a new world record, members of the Univer- sity's Human Powered Submarine Team are spending the winter chart- ing the waters of Canham Natatorium to test out revisions on their older model ATLAS to build a new one. Last summer at the International Submarine Races in Escondido, Calif ATI AS finished in the middle managed to go 2.6 knots. "Last time we weren't able to stay on course. We are absolutely sure that if we can stay on course this time, we'll break the world record," said Eric Beaser, an Engineering junior. The current world record for pro- peller-driven human-powered sub- marines powered by two people is seven knots, and is held by the human-powered submarine team at Ecole de Technologie Superior in Canada with their ship. OMER. By Rachel Green Daily Staff Reporter helped her recover from an illness. While in jail, Aihua said she "suffered horrifying treatment such as electric shocks and inserting a tube &^n% r, nw.tn.vNna rlr thi-vt-i ofr n-A Thousands from across the United States and Canada gathered at Rackham Auditorium this weekend to meditate, share stories of Falun rnnai nInet on their lives and discusI swvs to I I I I