Right....Baker's was brilliant lawyering.
He played hard ball, right from the git go. Ted Olsen was also magnificent.
Personally, I think it was the oral argument by Katherine Harris' lawyer Joe Klock that turned the tide. When asked by the justices what the substantive standards should be, Klock said:
JUSTICE SOUTER: Mr. Klock, will you address Justice Breyer's question of a moment ago? If there were to be a uniform standard laid down, I suppose, at this point, by the Leon County Circuit Court, or in any other valid way, in your judgment, what should the substantive standard be?I recall that wording to the effect that voters have a responsibility to follow the instructions in the booth, made it into the final decision.MR. KLOCK: I'll try to answer that question. You would think -- I would -- you would start, I would believe, with the requirements that the voter has when they go into the booth. That would be a standard to start with. The voter is told in the polling place and then when they walk into the booth that what you are supposed to do with respect to the punch cards is put the ballot in, punch your selections, take the ballot out, and make sure there are no hanging pieces of paper attached to it.
The whole issue of what constitutes a legal vote, which the Democrats make much ado about, presumes that it's a legal vote no matter what you do with the card. And presumably you could take the card out of the polling place and not stick it in the box, and they would consider that to be a legal vote. The fact is, is that a legal vote, at the very basics, has to at least be following the instructions that you are given and placing the ballot in the box.
-PJ