TALLAHASSEE, Florida (CNN) -- Though sharply divided, the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in Saturday to stop the court-ordered manual count of tens of thousands of presidential election ballots in Florida.
George W. Bush campaign workers responded to the order with "subdued exuberance." Ron Klain, a legal advisor to Vice President Al Gore, said the campaign is "obviously disappointed."
The high court voted 5-4 to stop a recount that had been ordered Friday by the Florida Supreme Court to address claims by Gore that some votes cast for him on November 7 were never counted.
One dissenter, Justice John Paul Stevens, wrote that "the legitimacy of the election" might be forever stained if the recount was stopped.
The court ordered oral arguments for 11 a.m. Monday.
The court order came in response to an emergency appeal by attorneys for Bush. (More on the Bush request)
Justice Antonin Scalia, among the most conservative members of the court, wrote that "a majority of the court ... believes that the petitioner has a substantial probability of success" in his attempt to have the Florida court's decision overturned.
But Justice Stevens accused the majority of acting "unwisely," and wrote that "preventing the recount from being completed will inevitably cast a cloud on the legitimacy of the election."
Along with Scalia, Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Sandra Day O'Connor voted to halt the recounts. In the dissent, Stevens was joined by Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter.
Seven of the nine Supreme Court justices were appointed by Republican presidents. In recent years, the court often has had a narrow conservative majority and that appeared to be the case in the decision to hear this appeal, one of the most dramatic and consequential in decades.
The Florida Supreme Court ruling on Friday that led to Saturday's federal action ordered a manual recount of at least 42,858 "undervotes" in as many as 58 Florida counties.
Undervotes are ballots that never registered a vote for either presidential candidate when they were first tabulated by machines. Democrats believe enough were cast for Gore to let him win Florida and the presidency.
Friday's ruling had also reduced Bush's lead over Gore from the certified 537 to 154 by ordering the addition of votes from partial recounts in Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties.
Latest developments:
• Klain told reporters that Gore's campaign had picked up 58 votes in 13 counties where manual tallies had begun and, in some cases, been completed.
That brought a sharp response from New York Gov. George Pataki. He said Leon County Circuit Judge Terry Lewis, who is in charge of overseeing the recounts, had ordered that "no partial counts will be done or reported formally or informally."
A Gore attorney said he had understood the order referred solely to the canvassing board members, but during a conference call Saturday, Lewis told them that was not the case. The Gore lawyer agreed to tell the rest of the campaign that the partial counts were not to be made public.
• The ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary committee issued scathing criticism of the high court, saying its credibility and "moral posture" have been severely compromised.
"This is very bad for the Supreme Court," said Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, "because their credibility is so
diminished, and their moral posture is so diminished, that it could take years to pull back from that."
• While saying Bush was pleased with the court action, spokesman James Baker said it was "sad that we seem to be deciding a national election for president of the United States in lawsuits and in courthouses after the election outcome has been certified. This is the first time, I think, in modern history that that has happened."
Speaking in Tallahassee, Baker said, "We'll be ready on Monday morning" to argue before the Supreme Court.
Bush campaign chairman Don Evans said Bush was giving guests a driving tour of his ranch in Crawford when given the news of the decision. He said Bush was gratified.
GOP vice presidential candidate Dick Cheney, who was watching a movie in Washington at the time of the announcement, was called on his cell phone. His response: "Great," Evans said.
• President Bill Clinton, who threw his full support behind a recount, said, "The more people feel there was an accurate count, the more legitimacy will be conferred on whoever the eventual winner is. And when there is a final winner, then the rest of us ought to say, 'OK, let's give this new president a chance to do the job.'"
• Recounts had begun in several counties, including Orange, Hillsborough and Osceola counties, while judges in Leon County were tabulating undervotes cast in Miami-Dade County at a rate of 1,000 ballots an hour.
• Speaking for Bush, Montana Gov. Marc Racicot said the plan to manually recount the undervotes in Florida "is inherently flawed and incapable of producing a result that's trustworthy ..."
• Gore campaign attorney David Boies said it appeared that Gore would win the presidency "if the count were to go forward."
"These is no federal question here," Boies said. "This is a matter of state law, and the Supreme Court of the United States has not, at least for 100 years ... ever stepped in to change the result of a national election by substituting its judgment, as to how votes ought to be counted, for the judgment of the local election officials."
• In at least one Florida county, the order to stop counting came as the work was wrapping up. "We've wasted a whole day," said Cora Sue Robinson, elections supervisor in Gulf County. She said local officials had recounted all 43 undervotes in their jurisdiction, and "it did not change the vote anyway whatsoever."
• The U.S. Supreme decision was announced just moments after the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta rejected an appeal by the Bush campaign to stop the manual count, but said it would not allow the results to be certified by the Florida secretary of state until the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether to take the case.
• The Republican-controlled Florida legislature held a brief special session Friday. The session, which reconvenes Tuesday, is expected to decide whether to appoint the legislature's own slate of electors for Bush. (More on special session)
• The Florida Supreme Court is working to clarify a previous decision -- a ruling that allowed hand recounts to continue past the state election law certification deadline. The state court's decision was remanded for clarification last week by the U.S. Supreme Court.
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