Video: '2000 Election December 12 Gore v. Bush Supreme Court Decision' (5 videos)

(Tuesday, December 12, 2000, about 10 p.m. EST; during the United States presidential election, 2000) — Five weeks after one of the most unsettled presidential elections in American history, Texas Governor George W. Bush, a Republican, became president-elect tonight as the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 it was reversing the ruling of the Florida Supreme Court allowing hand recount of votes in Florida.

The ruling, in effect, ensured Bush would win the presidency over incumbent Vice President Al Gore of Tennessee, a Democrat.

The recount having been ended, Bush won Florida by 537 votes, a margin of 0.009%.

The decision was extremely controversial due to its partisan split and the majority’s unusual instruction that its judgment in Bush v. Gore should not set precedent but should be “limited to the present circumstances.”

Gore said he disagreed with the Court’s decision, but conceded the election the following evening, Dec. 13, 2000.

Video: 'Al Gore concedes presidential election of 2000'

Ultimately, Bush and his running mate, former U.S. Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney of Wyoming, won 271 electoral votes, one more than a majority, despite Gore and his running mate, U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, receiving 543,895 more votes (a margin of 0.51 percent of all popular votes cast).

Video: '2000 Election December 13 George Bush speech in Austin, TX'

Bush and Cheney would be sworn in for a four-year term on January 20, 2001.