law.com The Humans Behind the Headnotes
Mark Voorhees
AmLaw Tech
09-09-2002

Early on the morning of Dec. 13, 2000, shortly after arriving for work at West Group in Eagan, Minn., Chip Allen was in a foul mood. Late the night before, the U.S. Supreme Court had stopped the recount of votes in Florida and handed the 2000 election to George W. Bush. Allen was not upset by the outcome but by how the justices reached it. Allen's first assignment of the day was to summarize the case and write the headnotes. He had to do it quickly and correctly, and neither was easy.