Observers listening to the justice's questions could not predict which side had the edge. If the court reverses the state's decision, the Bush campaign hopes that Gore's challenges will lose needed momentum, particularly in the court of public opinion. Most polls show the country evenly split as to whether a speedy resolution is preferable to a full deliberation of all the disputes. An ABC News/Washington Post poll found that 80 percent of Americans would support whichever candidate is inaugurated on Jan 20.

Many court observers were surprised that the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case at all, said David L. Shapiro '54, HLS's Cromwell professor of law.

"Most law professors were surprised. I think if you had taken a vote about whether the court would take the case, most people would have said it wouldn't," he said.

But Shapiro said the decision was not without precedent.

"There have been times before when the court has taken issues of great national significance on short notice," he said, referring to the Pentagon Papers case.

"There are precedents for taking cases of great national importance even though they haven't percolated in the lower courts--especially if there is significant time pressure," he said.

Shapiro also observed that the court requires a majority vote of the justices to bring a case up for argument.