The Case In Taft's Temple: The justices could spank Florida's court. Or be purposely dilatory. Or let Congress cope.(The Last Word)(Brief Article)

In 1921, eight years after William Howard Taft escaped from the punishment--as he regarded it--of the presidency, he got what he preferred, the position of chief justice of the Supreme Court. But his contentment was incomplete. Although the judicial branch of government is a coequal branch, its highest court then sat in the Capitol. In 1929 Taft got Congress to authorize construction of a Supreme Court building. He died in 1930, five years before completion of the noble structure that is an architectural hymn to the dignity of the law.

Dignity has been scarce during Florida's debacle. Judges and lawyers have been the architects of the unseemliness. Last Friday the U.S. Supreme Court, with some justices radiating reluctance, examined the recent ruling of Florida's Supreme Court for incompatibilities with the Constitution and an 1887 federal law. The Constitution gives to each state's…