This is in no way political, I am just driving myself nuts trying to remember the witty line that character said about channeling their inner liberal. Does anyone remember what law he was referring to?
shareHe was referring to the lawsuit filed on behalf of George Bush in Federal Court requesting an injunction to stop selective hand recounts, on the grounds that it violated his clients rights under the equal protection clause. Most conservative judges are very pro-State rights. Whereas liberal judges are more likely to be Federalists. Thus for a US Supreme Court Justice to vote for an injuction to stop a recount in an individual State, would be seen as the Federal Government trumping State's rights (this is something Thomas, Scalia, etc would never do under normal circumstances). This is what Baker meant when he said maybe Thomas, Scalia, etc, would find their "inner liberal".
The bottom line is that the Florida Supreme Court in particular,and to a degree, the US Supreme Court, acted and voted strictly along political lines. Baker's brilliant move to file the suit in Federal Court was a precaution against the Florida Supreme Court (which he knew to be activist liberals) from exceeding their authority and granting endless hand recounts. In the end, the US Supreme Court choose to step in because the Florida Supreme Court had way overstepped its authority. That's the reason the ruling was declared to count only in the specific instance of the 2000 Florida Presidential Election.