Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Legalism Vs. Justice in the Terri Schiavo case
3/23/05 | Richard Schwarz

Posted on 03/23/2005 7:29:44 AM PST by Schwarzeneger

I can't help but conclude that our system and judges in this Terri Schiavo case are using intellectual legalistic gymnastics to justify the state sanctioned starvation of a woman.

On this Easter weekend I would like us all to consider this:

In Mark 7:11 A story is told of how Jesus dealings with the Church leaders of the day. At that time church leaders were required by the law to:

1) Support the Church (tithe) 2) Take care of aging parents.

Apparently in that time, the leaders devised a way to technically avoid supporting the parents by saying they were using that money to obey a higher law of giving to the church (God). Jesus strongly condemned these legalists for ignoring the weightier part of the law...namely justice.

Today, our Judges and legalists proudly stand by their technical ruling of law while a poor helpless girl starves to death with guards standing outside preventing weeping parents from feeding her or even giving her some water. Even the Romans while crucifying Jesus gave Him some liquid to swab his mouth with while on the cross. I think we need to examine our hearts here, and the heart of our legal justice system. We need to take a look at what it is exactly that allows us to rationalize and allow the starving of an innocent person. A person who has worth, and needs our help. A person, who in her unique position, has the more of an ability than almost any other person on earth to be a catalyst for bringing out the love, mercy, charity, honor and good will of us all.

Jesus said to the legalists: We strain at a knat and swallow a camel. Some things never change.

Rick Schwarz

single father of six beautiful kids


TOPICS: Education; History; Politics; Religion
KEYWORDS: judges; judicialsystem; justice; legalism; schiavo; terri; terrischiavo

1 posted on 03/23/2005 7:29:45 AM PST by Schwarzeneger
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Schwarzeneger
I remember hearing of the following exchange in one courtroom:

Man - "I want justice!"

Judge - "Sir, this is not a court of justice, it is a court of law."

That's pretty well sums it up.

2 posted on 03/23/2005 7:33:58 AM PST by ZGuy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Schwarzeneger

Article is very thought provoking.


3 posted on 03/23/2005 8:10:31 AM PST by Jeffery T.
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Schwarzeneger

Pharisees.


4 posted on 03/23/2005 9:01:55 AM PST by combat_boots (Dug in and not budging an inch.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ZGuy

My WW II vet Father-in-law is fond of saying that there is no Justice left in our legal system... that Lady Justice is no longer just blind, but deaf and dumb as well.

Maybe the legal system is in a persistant vegitative state, and needs to be removed from the public feeding trough.


5 posted on 03/23/2005 9:37:51 AM PST by ex 98C MI Dude (Proud Member of the Reagan Republicans)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Schwarzeneger

Excellent point. These judges need to be taken out to the woodshed. Their arrogance is illustrated by that two-bit loser Federal Judge in FLA who waited until 3 PM Monday to hold a hearing and then renedered his flawed decision when he got around to it. That's why there's a hell.


6 posted on 03/23/2005 9:11:44 PM PST by Hugenot
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Schwarzeneger

This will be gaining steam even after this is all over. I think people will demand changes in the Judiciary, including the ability to more easily remove these hacks from the bench.


7 posted on 03/23/2005 9:13:18 PM PST by A CA Guy (God Bless America, God bless and keep safe our fighting men and women.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Schwarzeneger
Anyone who has read my posts since last thursday knows that my desire was to save Terri Schiavo's life and uphold the rule of law at the same time. So far the rule of law has been upheld but Terri's life continues to hang in the balance. By tomorrow, the time for extra-constitutional measures will become necessary. I can't believe I am writing this but I would support the executive branch taking action based on natural law principles and Terri Schhiavo's inherent right to life.

You can feel free to disagree but at some point, you have to ask yourself what good comes from this woman dying?

8 posted on 03/23/2005 9:15:47 PM PST by bigeasy_70118
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ex 98C MI Dude

It apears you may be right.

They strain at a knat and swallow a camel


9 posted on 03/24/2005 7:51:33 AM PST by Schwarzeneger
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: bigeasy_70118
This whole situation is sickening. Our country will suffer, and I hate to see this. The Christian faith tells us to respect the authorities which have been placed above us, and as usual we all will, but I weep for our nation. We all need to trust that God will handle this. I pray for Judge Greer, and for Mr. Schiavo, and his family, and I hope God forgives them and grants them grace. Also I pray for the Shindlers and I pray God strengthens them and gives them peace and that they leave the vengeance where it belongs.. to God. We live in an unjust world and system. The State is becoming an uncontrollable beast.
10 posted on 03/24/2005 8:10:11 AM PST by Schwarzeneger
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: A CA Guy
I do believe that we have accepted a fine point of law over this woman's life. Where are the real men and women of faith in our system who would just not allow this. There is no excuse for this. Our entire Judicial system has just sanctioned the purposeful starving of an innocent. They did so with a flimsy unverifiable determination (hearsay) of what she said in passing. This could be done in any other case. This is sickening. Our Judicial system has just condemned itself as far as I'm concerned. A point of law has been served, and we sacrificed a young woman and her family to do so. This is the inevitable result of sucking faith and God out of the system. Our country was founded on faith and although we have a history of tolerance of how one worshiped God we have now openly and without apology tried to run God out of our system. We lose sight of the value God has for us, and we'll begin to depend instead on the inferior value we have for each other. We replace God's love and care for an inferior love and care. There is a cost. There are people of faith who were asleep and are now coming to the realization of why people have been complaining about our lack of care. Why our lack of respect for life in the abortion laws and others were so important. A line needs to be drawn, and some tried to do it here and failed. And this precedent will be the catalyst for further and easier determination of death. Now we can't trust that our system is decent, we now have to have LIVING WILLS written documents to protect us from our own government. Better be sure to have that document posted or you could be terminated on what someone says you said. Perhaps your life will depend on what the Judge in the case had for dinner the prior evening, or how his/her spouse treated them. And its the luck of the draw ...what Judge will I get? Judge Hope? or Judge Dread. Our legal system ought NEVER to be doing what it is here It ought always to be stepping in to PROTECT and determine worth. TO lift up the downtrodden, but NEVER EVER to starve an otherwise viable person to death.
11 posted on 03/25/2005 7:54:32 AM PST by Schwarzeneger
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Schwarzeneger

One of the things that has prevented other judges from intervening is that the whole thing is being dealt with on a procedural level, since the first judge (Greer) made findings of fact that then prevented the other judges from reviewing the case from that aspect. And given the "facts" that Greer deigned to accept, the procedure is correct and the other courts find it so. While there are good reasons for this feature of the system, in general, there is no good reason for Greer not to allow a review of the facts since it is so obvious that there is much controversy over them (particularly since he obviously cherry picked the facts and disallowed many things that could have led to a different result). No good reason other than his incredible arrogance and the fact that judges know they are really the ones in control in this country and they take every opportunity to show it.


12 posted on 03/25/2005 8:01:45 AM PST by livius
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Schwarzeneger

The basic issue for me with this is there is so much in dispute.

She came in with healed broken bones.

The whole issue favoring ending Terri's life is based on one doctor who had spent only 45 minutes with her with is car keys as his only tools to test her with.

The husband already has arrangements to have her body cremated rather than examined.

There was supposed evidence of possible strangulation I've heard.

There is just so much happening here that I feel needed to be investigated before the plug was pulled.

The fact that her husband has collected millions through lawsuits and policies is also a big problem for me.

He saying in front of nurses "When will the bitch die" kind if irks me as well.

There is so much unknown and yet so much desire to killer off quickly and to allow her body to be cremated to hide everything.

I think the whole thing is suspicious.

Micheal said for 7 years he didn't know what Terri wanted, then all of a sudden Terri always wanted to die if in this position?

Too much stinks to high heaven here for me.


13 posted on 03/25/2005 2:49:37 PM PST by A CA Guy (God Bless America, God bless and keep safe our fighting men and women.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: A CA Guy

Our UNION WILL NEVER BE THE SAME


14 posted on 03/26/2005 9:19:18 AM PST by Schwarzeneger
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: livius

You are correct. The Judge in the case did find as FACT that Terri wanted to die. His conclusion was based on hearsay and is NOT clear and convincing. Judge's have an enormous amount of power. They are by far the most powerful branch of Governement. What i've seen Judges do in controvercial cases like this is exactly what you said, and exactly what President Bush asked for,...allowance of another court/Judge to examine the facts. These Judges have enormous latitude. Judge Bork has said that many trial judges are like "little ceasers" and I agree. It underscores how important it is to get reasonable well balanced Judges elected and appointed. Judge Greer was elected. In fact he took contributions from Mike Schiavo's lawyers. This is not uncommon at all, however it seems to be unethical. We have a real problem which needs to be addressed here. These judges findings of facts ought to be weighed against the implied results of these findings. The Supreme Court case which Judge Greer has used to justify this calls out for Clear and Convincing evidence. Also the case was also about someone on a breathing machine. In the Karen Qunilan case (yet another case) the courts allowed the resperator to be removed, BUT NOT THE FEEDING TUBE. Why? because it was deemed that the feeding tube was NOT extra ordinary. By the way Karen lived after being taken off the machine and lived for another 10 years with the feeding tube in place.


15 posted on 03/26/2005 10:08:03 AM PST by Schwarzeneger
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: ZGuy

justice isn't being served


16 posted on 03/27/2005 11:02:59 PM PST by Schwarzeneger
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Schwarzeneger

(Mark 7:9) Ampl

And He (Jesus) said to them, You have a fine way of rejecting [thus thwarting and nullifying and doing away with] the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition (your own human regulations)!


17 posted on 03/31/2005 4:23:49 AM PST by Schwarzeneger
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson