>I caught about 30 minutes of the session on NPR just a few minutes ago. Serious and fair stuff I agree.

I don't listen to NPR because of its left-wing bent. Plus, you can not fully appreciate the full impact of the hearing by just listening to the 30 minutes they selected for you.

>The NPR analyst (Rosen?) said that the questioning took a different turn after mention of the McFarland (?) case. At that point there was a sense of a 5 to 4 split along conservative-liberal lines. He said it would be very unfortunate, and damaging to the court's stature, if they returned a 5-4 decision in this case.
>
>I agree with you that they won't do that. Which leads me to conclude that they will not overturn the FL SC decision because it is practically certain that they could not get much unanimity around that decision.
>
>Of course, I could be wrong...

Like I said, I would not venture to guess how they will rule because all sides got vigorously grilled. Besides both sides could get ruling in their favor on the different points argued.