'Simple justice and commercial logic suggest that now is the time to remove the handcuffs from the ferry companies.'
The justices suggested, in addition, that they might invalidate future borrowing for general operating funds, while leaving the current budget intact.
Simple justice suggests that victims harmed by a product should be able to seek compensation.
Several justices then suggested that the law might be interpreted to apply only to constitutional violations.
Some justices suggested that perhaps none of the court's precedents was really a good fit for this case.
As the justices had suggested in their questions at a hearing on Monday, time is short.
The four justices in the minority suggested that Florida law provided no such thing.
But several justices suggested today that the analogy was inexact.
Several justices suggested that they might send the case back to a federal district judge in Maine.
Other justices suggested that the administration's new position, that the law applied only to jurisdiction and not to substance, appeared to come out of the blue.