San Jose, California -- In a move that took liberal observers by surprise, the US Supreme Court today ordered the reinstatement of the "Earlier" button on the Current Events board on the notorious HabitableZone Web site.

System officials had earlier removed the button after a recount of posts on the board had revealed that the software algorithm in charge of determining display of the button had overcounted posts by Tom Brosz, leading spokesman for the Rightist faction. System Administrator Robert Shepherd explained that "Mr. Brosz's posts were littered with bluster, partisanship, dangling participles, and other hanging chad, totally confusing the automatic post-counting machines." He noted that on many occasions Mr. Brosz had posted the same message more than once, saying "See!".

However, by a 5-4 vote split along partisan lines, the Supreme Court ordered the button reinstated to "preserve free and full access to the intellectual fruits of the American Right as the priceless heritage of all mankind. The nation has a vital interest in reading the gems of wisdom penned by Tom Brosz in all their glory going back lo these many years. This interest unquestionably outweighs the administrative rights of some damn liberal computer geek."

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Stevens wrote "Who gives a flying fig?" In a separate dissent, Justice Ginsberg wrote "Who the hell is this Brosz guy, anyway?"

Weighing in on the issue, a spokesman for Diebold Systems, parent of controversial voting machine manufacturer GEMS, declared, "Hey, if we'd been in charge of that Web site, this never would have happened. We promise to deliver the votes...er, I mean posts, for conservatives everywhere!"

Asked what he might do to prevent a reccurence, Mr. Shepherd vowed to install a printer on the server to produce an "incontrovertible paper trail". He further stated that in the future all posters would be required to print out a receipt documenting the text of their messages and the date and time of posting, and to confirm the post by entering a 27-digit number printed on the receipt into a confirmation dialog box. Failure to enter the correct number would, he stated, be "prima facie evidence of post fraud, and we will prosecute the offending IP address to the full extent of the law".

Al Gore could not be reached for comment.