I don't think so....there would have been so much upheaval if they gave it away.
SCOTUS had no choice but to let the existing law of the time stand.
That is like folks saying certain Congressmen or women are instrumental in keeping bases in certain states. For the most part, anyone can fight those battles. It is certainly no reason to keep certain people around for 40 years or so.
After all....the SCOTUS can't be compared to the New Jersey State Supreme Court that said:
Oh, that law about elections...doesn't really matter. We can let the "loser" step down and Frank Lautenberg to take his place!
Bologna. Gore's objective was not to win Florida, but to keep the vote counting past the time that the electoral college met. If that happened, Florida's votes would not have been counted and Gore would have won in the electoral college.
Most legal scholars believed that the US Supreme Court, relying upon federalist principles, would affirm Florida's right to manage its own elections.
The decision to stop the counting looks so easy in hindsight. Go back six years and re-think.