Majority casts itself as reluctant arbiter.
Usually, courts try to avoid political issues, the majority noted. When contending parties invoke the process of the courts, however, it becomes our unsought responsibility to resolve the federal and constitutional issues the judicial system has been forced to confront. Several of the justices in the minority responded with language that stopped just short of calling their colleagues hypocrites. That confidence is a public treasure. It is the Nation's confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law.