Whether a state could continue counting votes after the federally established deadline to certify electors (they could not) and whether missing that deadline would violate the Equal Protection Clause (it would have).
The question the court was asked to answer was not “who gets to be president” and if they had ruled the other way Bush could have still ended up winning the election. The likely scenario if they had done so would have been the House electing Bush, since Florida wouldn’t have been able to finish the recount in time to certify it.
But at least we would’ve gotten Vice President Lieberman out of it! What a joy a Bush/Lieberman admin would’ve been. 