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Why did Chief Justice William Rehnquist argue that the Florida Supreme Court had created new election law?

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U.S. presidential election of 2000 — Bush v. Gore A Florida judge examining a challenged vote at an operations center in Plantation, Florida, during a recount of the state's U.S. presidential election ballots, 2000.

In his concurring opinion for Bush v. Gore, Chief Justice William Rehnquist argued that the Florida Supreme Court had effectively created new election law in violation of Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution.1

This constitutional provision reserves the power to determine the manner of appointing presidential electors exclusively to state legislatures. Rehnquist contended that by ordering a manual recount and establishing the standards for that process, the Florida Supreme Court had overstepped its judicial authority and usurped the legislative role, thereby imposing new rules that the state legislature had not enacted.12