Susan O'Halloran

Staff Attorney to Justice Major Harding

I worked as a staff attorney for Justice Major Harding at the time of the 2000 presidential election case. My memories of that case all involve communications, either too much or none at all. As soon as the case came to the Court, the office phones, including the unlisted private lines, rang incessantly. Office staff could not do anything but deal with the phone calls. Some of the callers yelled and vented their frustration. The same thing was happening in all of the justices’ offices. The Clerk’s office responded by routing all of the phones through its office. Our staff was relieved and now able to do our legal work.

Staff attorneys for Justice Major Harding working late on November 19, 2000. L-R: Michael Ufferman, Susan O'Halloran, and Jeff Schumm.

Tom Crapps, who had been my co-staff attorney in Justice Harding’s office years before and was one of my close friends, was hired as part of the Gore legal team. Tom and I immediately agreed that we would not communicate or see each other until the case was resolved. We were concerned about any appearance of improper communication between the justice’s staff and the legal counsel for one of the parties. This was a real sacrifice as Tom’s children were my “surrogate grandchildren” and my husband and I visited them regularly. The kids had a hard time understanding why Aunt Susan and Uncle Michael weren’t coming to their house or taking them on special outings. We had a lot to make up to the kids when the case was finished!

One night I received a phone call at home from a New York Times reporter. He wanted me to give him inside information on my Justices’s thoughts about the case and said he wouldn’t reveal me as a source. I was surprised that he had tracked me down as I didn’t live in Tallahassee and was not listed on my house phone. (Even though the Internet was around, this was before the floodgates opened on everyone’s personal information.) I gave the reporter a quick lesson on judicial staff and legal ethics and asked that he not call again.

But it wasn’t just strangers who tried to pry out inside information. I stopped answering my home phone or talking to family and friends who called. My husband had the job of telling them all that “she won’t say anything about the case.”