Transcript for This day in history: Dec. 13, 2000

It'll be a long time before it's forgotten that Mr. Bush won this the way he did. In the Supreme Court and yes it took awhile last night the sort of precisely what the court had decided. By such a narrow margin it is case number double O 949. And we've been thieves dissect it for years to come here's ABC's Jackie Judd. The Supreme Court cleared the way for George W. Bush to become president by interpreting the principle of equal protection under the law. In a way it had never done before. Equal protection cases often deal with discrimination based on rates. Here the court applied it to counting voters ballots it's now become clear that as a matter of federal law. There have to be reasonably uniform standards. For collecting people's votes and four interpreting those votes. In fact equal protection became the single issue this divided court could find a majority to support. This was. A stabilizing decisions and restore order to a very chaotic situation. And with that in mind the justices in a highly unusual move said their ruling. Is limited to the present circumstances only. Meaning it applies just a bush legal or not likely say many legal experts. What they've done now is. And now something that could be a very important general principle and then take it right back again immediately by saying well we don't intend to enforce this in any other case. Even those who support aspects of the ruling still expected to affect many states with election laws similar to Florida. That raises a host of new questions. Not just about recounts but about different voting machines about differences between one city in another city within the same stage. Even he raises questions about differences between citizens and difference day. It's the historic decision will certainly be remembered as the one that put a president in the White House. It may also become a decision that expands the judiciary is role in future elections as well. Jackie Judd ABC news the Supreme Court.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.