Sorry, the precedent has been set long ago. It is just that the Republicans do not want to use it. The Democrats have not hesitated, and will not hesitate.
Terri has been supoened to appear before a Congressional committee- that alone gives justification to preserve her life.
President Bush has to save Terri! It's her only hope!
After he does save her it will be just like Iraq, the turning point that spreads democracy!
Then blame Congress for the failure to enforce their subpoena.
Since she could give no testimony I don't see that. Congress could order that she be kept alive to preserve evidence. That may require further legislative action.
The old (lex parliamenti ) way:
"The rudiments of the power to punish for "contempt of Congress" come to us from the pages of English history. The origin of privileges and contempts extends back into the period of the emergence of Parliament. The establishment of a legislative body which could challenge the absolute power of the monarch is a long and bitter story. In that struggle, Parliament made broad and varied use of the contempt power. Almost from the beginning, both the House of Commons and the House of Lords claimed absolute and plenary authority over their privileges.
This was an independent body of law, described by Coke as lex parliamenti. Only Parliament could declare what those privileges were or what new privileges were occasioned, and only Parliament could judge what conduct constituted a breach of privilege.
In particular, this exclusion of lex parliamenti from the lex terrae, or law of the land, precluded judicial review of the exercise of the contempt power or the assertion of privilege. Parliament declared that no court had jurisdiction to consider such questions.
In the latter part of the seventeenth century, an action for false imprisonment was brought by one Jay, who had been held in contempt. The defendant, the Serjeant-at-Arms of the House of Commons, demurred that he had taken the plaintiff into custody for breach of privilege. The Chief Justice, Pemberton, overruled the demurrer.
Summoned to the bar of the House, the Chief Justice explained that he believed that the assertion of privilege went to the merits of the action, and did not preclude jurisdiction.
For his audacity, the Chief Justice was dispatched to Newgate Prison. "
If Congress doesn't back up that subpoena with force, it will mean nothing. Judge Greer should be sitting in jail right now!
The press conference will be on Fox and CNN today...He believes Sean Hannity will also have it on his show.