I have direct reason to suspect Palpatine has been researching this issue in order to persecute certain former and current FReepers who have exposed his history in the past.
After doing such research for his own personal purposes and getting his agenda slapped down in Schiavo's case on these threads as well as in fact by the will of the people expressed by the actions of the Florida legislature, something lawyers simply cannot abide, he might have contacted Schiavo's legal team with his findings.
But my reason for my assumption is here