Florida Judges Uphold Right to Kill
To the disgust of many but the surprise of none, the Florida Supreme “Court” has granted Michael Schiavo’s request to starve his ex-wife to death. Equally predictably, the American Criminal Liberties Union is crowing and citing ACLU-FL’s Legal Director Randall Marshall’s smarmy statement:
The governor and Florida lawmakers abused their power by acting in haste without any consideration for Florida’s independent judiciary and in blatant disregard for what the courts found Terri Schiavo would have wanted. Today’s thoughtful and careful opinion will be very important in the history of Florida because it is a strong rebuke to politicians who attempt to negate court decisions - especially those involving extremely difficult life and death issues - simply because they disagree with the outcome.
Translated: if a court orders you to die, then by God, you’re gonna die. Of course Marshall and his ACLU are lying about that. If Terri Schiavo Schindler had had the good sense to murder Michael Schiavo and his Dr. Death attorney, they’d be arguing passionately against her being put to death for her crime, especially by such a cruel and unusual means as starvation. And they sure as hell would not be arguing that once the courts had sentenced her to death for her crime, Jeb Bush could no longer pardon her, and the Legislature could not even pass a law authorizing him to do so, without violating their precious separation of powers. For them, judicial activism … um, I mean, “the independent judiciary” … is just another cliche, to be trotted out when it happens to serve their hard left agenda, and to be ignored when it does not.
An appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is unlikely to succeed. The only conceivable challenges I can think of are under the questionable “substantive due process” theory under the Fourteenth Amendment, or the republican guaranty clause of Article IV, Sec. 4. The former is a long shot, that probably shouldn’t succeed, but theoretically could, especially given the Florida Supreme “Court’s” refusal to afford Terri Schindler the same due process rights to which a murderer subject to a more humane death sentence would be entitled. The latter is an even longer shot that theoretically should prevail, but almost certainly won’t, given the extreme reluctance of the courts to hold that anything done by any state violates the principles of republican government. At most, an attempted challenge might buy the Florida Legislature a little more time to amend the Constitution to allow Terri’s Law. Inevitably, the Florida Supreme Soviet “Court” - the same one that ruled four years ago that “seven days” means “17 days, or as long as it takes for Gore to steal the election” - will find some way to rationalize its way around that amendment too, but maybe by then Michael Schiavo will finally have tired of his jihad to murder his ex-wife. If not, there’s no reason not to repeat the cycle again and again until Terri eventually dies of old age. It’s not a very elegant solution, but in a state ruled by a court as lawless as Florida’s, it may be the best anyone can hope for.
Justene Adamec, and Media Culpa and Code Blue Blog have more.
UPDATE: The L.A. Dog Trainer does to the Terri Schiavo controversy what Michael Schiavo has long been trying to do to Terri Schiavo herself. Patterico sets the record straight.
September 24th, 2004 at 6:43 am
Well, your skillfull and entertaining rhetoric aside, the basis of the decision (that the courts are better equipped to determine the factual circumstances and apply existing law than the legislature is) lies at the heart of our Republican principles. Rule of law, not of people, especially politicians.
September 24th, 2004 at 7:08 am
I don’t think this is about applying existing law. That’s what the first round of court rulings did. This one goes far beyond that, denying the right of the Legislature to change the law. The court has effectively ruled that checks and balances are a one-way street.
I will grant you this: you were right and I was wrong over what the outcome of the court ruling would be. I must have completely forgot which state’s courts we were dealing with here.
September 24th, 2004 at 7:48 am
Terri’s Law Struck Down
Terri’s Law allowed Florida Governor Jeb Bush to step in and stop the murder of a brain-damaged woman when a lower court held that her husband’s rigths were greater than hers. The Florida Supreme Court has now struck down Terri’s…
September 24th, 2004 at 8:12 am
As a physician, I cannot comprehend the Florida Supreme Court’s decision to allow Terri Schiavo to be starved and dehydrated until she dies. As I said in my CodeBlueBlog today:
Many have adduced as evidence supporting starvation, that in her mental state, Ms. Schiavo could not possibly suffer physically or mentally from this act.
Then she cannot possibly suffer physically or mentally from its absence.
Will we, as a civilization, be able to make the same claim?
CBB MD
September 24th, 2004 at 9:08 am
Since the SCOFLA is going to rule however it wants whatever the law and the constitution say, the legislature has only one way to fight back.
Impeachment.
The judges have violated their oaths. Get rid of them.
September 24th, 2004 at 5:26 pm
Statement by Schindler Family in Response
to Florida Supreme Court Ruling
For years now lawyers and judges – all of them total strangers – have besieged our family stating in courtrooms and the media that our severely disabled daughter, Terri, must be starved to death. We have been told that she must die in order to protect her right of privacy. And now the Florida Supreme Court tells us that a law crafted to save Terri’s life is unconstitutional when it is applied to her. None of this makes any sense to us.
The ruling by the Florida Supreme Court today was not unexpected; nevertheless the family is disappointed at the outcome. We would like everyone to understand the reason the Florida legislature and Governor Bush interceded in Terri’s case was to protect Terri from a serious miscarriage of justice. The Governor specifically wanted answers to the following questions, all of which are extremely troubling: (1) Why Terri’s purported desire to die was hidden from the jury in the 1992 medical malpractice case, during which Michael Schiavo testified that Terri would need compensation to live out her life; (2) What did Michael Schiavo mean when he purportedly said at Palm Gardens Nursing Home such things as “When is she going to die?” “Has she died yet?” “When is that bitch going to die?” “Can’t you do anything to accelerate her death?” (3) What Michael Schiavo knows about the multiple traumatic injuries of relatively recent origin that were found to be present in a bone scan conducted on Terri by Dr. Campbell Walker in March of 1991? (4) Why were nurses’ notes which documented Terri’s rehabilitation potential deleted from her chart at Palm Gardens? (5) Why were observations of the nursing assistants regarding Terri’s level of function and responsiveness deleted from her chart? and (6) What would Terri’s desires be regarding who should make end-of-life decisions for her if she knew that Michael Schiavo was living with another woman who has borne two children by him?
The family knows that Terri never expressed a desire to be starved to death, and the Legislature and Governor thought the case troubling enough to get involved directly. We profoundly regret that the Florida Supreme Court felt compelled to ignore these questions and opted instead to issue a technical legal decision that doesn’t protect Terri from the cadre of crusaders who are so desperate for our daughter be starved to death. The family knew that this outcome was probable and so we are pursuing other legal avenues, which we hope will save Terri’s life. The family appreciates all those who have supported their fight to save Terri, and again express to them our sincere gratitude. The family also will forever be grateful to Governor Bush and his legal team for their devotion to saving Terri’s life.
September 24th, 2004 at 5:29 pm
Source: http://thrownback.blogspot.com/
September 28th, 2004 at 9:36 pm
Submitted for Your Approval
First off… any spambots reading this should immediately go here, here, here, and here. Die spambots, die! And now… here are all the links submitted by members of the Watcher’s Council for this week’s vote. Council links:Ev…
September 30th, 2004 at 10:34 pm
The Council Has Spoken!
First off… any spambots reading this should immediately go here, here, here, and here. Die spambots, die! And now… the winning entries in the Watcher’s Council vote for this week are Sometimes Ya Gotta Speak Up by e-Claire,…
October 9th, 2004 at 3:32 pm
Where can I find a list of Florida Supreme court and appeals court justices and their votes on right to life and family issues with reccommendations for or against?
October 9th, 2004 at 10:59 pm
I don’t know. Lexis and Westlaw have everything, but they cost $$$. Findlaw is OK for U.S. Supreme Court decisions, and case law from some states. They’re pretty good on California; I don’t know what they have for Florida.