With the outcome of the Presidential election still uncertain, a divided US Supreme Court today hears the arguments from the lawyers of Vice-President Al Gore and Governor George Bush on whether hand recounts should resume in Florida.
The decision by a five-to-four majority of the justices on Saturday to halt the recount was a serious setback to Mr Gore who a day earlier had been granted one by the Florida Supreme Court.
Mr Gore maintains that he would win the election in Florida if disputed ballots were hand counted. Mr Bush has opposed any further recounts pointing out that he is the certified winner in Florida following recounts already carried out.
The jubilation in the Gore camp when the Florida highest court ruled on Friday that hand recounts should begin immediately changed to shock when the US Supreme Court halted the counting on Saturday afternoon. This was in response to an emergency appeal from Mr Bush.
The Gore campaign was confident that the recounting of about 43,000 ballots where machines had not recorded a vote for President, would result in the Vice-President wiping out Mr Bush's tiny lead of 193 votes out of six million cast in Florida.
Whoever wins in Florida will become President because he will thus win the state's 25 Electoral College votes. This will be sufficient for either Mr Bush or Mr Gore to reach the majority of electoral votes needed to be elected President when the college meets on December 18th.
But there is increasing concern that whoever wins will have lost five weeks to prepare properly for the transition to the White House.
The fate of both men now hangs on the decision of the US Supreme Court on whether to allow the recounts to continue in Florida or to declare them illegal under federal or state law as Mr Bush claims.
But the court in granting a stay on the recounts until it could hear rival arguments today, showed itself to be deeply divided. In what is an unusual step at such an early stage in court cases, the four dissenting judges published their minority opinion. This led to one of the five majority judges, Justice Anthony Scalia, issuing a strong response. He is regarded as one of the most conservative members of the court.
The four dissenting judges are seen as the liberal wing of the court. Justice Paul Stevens speaking for the four said that "preventing the recount from being completed will inevitably cast a cloud on the legitimacy of the election."
But Justice Scalia in his response said that the majority of the judges believe Mr Bush has "a strong probability of success" when his case is heard today. "The counting of votes that are of questionable legality does in my view threaten irreparable harm to the petitioner [Mr Bush], and to the country, by casting a cloud upon what he claims to be the legitimacy of his election", Justice Scalia stated.
Even if the court rules that the recounts can continue in Florida, these could not be completed before Wednesday which is a deadline for appointing the state's list of 25 electors to ensure that they cannot be challenged when Congress counts the electoral votes on January 6th.
The significance of this deadline is now being played down by the Gore campaign. But Mr Bush clearly has the advantage because he has been certified as the winner in Florida and the state legislature, controlled by the Republicans, is ready to pass a law this week confirming his list of electors.
Mr Gore's lead lawyer, Mr David Boies, said yesterday that "If no votes are counted, then I think that's the end of the road." But he refused to say whether Mr Gore would then concede.