Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Qwinn
No one can legally overturn those rulings except a higher court, and some have led me to believe that not even they could do so, they could only order Greer to consider evidence that he had not already considered.

Your grammar is garbled, but I believe what you mean to say is correct: that the only thing an appeals court can do is tell a trial court judge to consider certain evidence. If a trial court judge states that he has considered evidence even though such evidence is squarely contrary to his opinion, the appeals process is meaningless.

Without new evidence, Jeb can't legally act as if Schiavo has a conflict of interest (as obvious as it may seem to everyone else) because the Court has ruled that he does not have one based on all existing evidence.

This isn't baseball, and this isn't some Matrix-style movie fantasyland where declaring that something is so makes it thus. There can be no doubt at all that the possibility exists of a conflict of interest regarding Michael's care of Terri. Jeb Bush's allegiance is not to men in black robes, but is to the Constitutions of Florida and the United States.

No one outside the courts can make findings of fact like the ones just discussed. If I'm wrong on that, give me a historical example where an executive or legislature's finding of fact has trumped the judiciary's. Unfortunately, I don't know of one.

There are numerous historical examples of a President overruling a court, and plenty of Presidents and governors enforcing or not enforcing laws in manners not explicitly authorized by courts. I don't know that any of these officials have ever openly declared that their actions were based upon disagreements over judicial findings of fact, but the basic principle is that the executive does something and is then either impeached or not.

Suppose Judge Greer were to examine someone who was gagged and tied to a stretcher, and he declared on the basis of that examination, that the person was dead and should be cremated immediately; the person's apparent struggling was no different from that of a chicken with its head cut off. Would Jeb Bush have the authority to intervene? After all, there would be nothing illegal about incinerating a corpse, and if Judge Greer were to declare the person dead having seen the evidence of her breathing, moaning, struggling, etc. then under the legal standards at play nobody would have the right to question his finding of fact.

If the executive isn't willing to check the judiciary when it makes findings of facts that are just plain wrong, then there is no effective check at all on rogue judges. Because of rules which were supposedly designed to prevent judge-shopping, it is possible for one person to have almost complete lifelong control over any person who comes under his authority. Truly scary.

250 posted on 10/19/2003 12:13:54 PM PDT by supercat (Why is it that the more "gun safety" laws are passed, the less safe my guns seem?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 244 | View Replies ]


To: supercat
"I don't know that any of these officials have ever openly declared that their actions were based upon disagreements over judicial findings of fact, but the basic principle is that the executive does something and is then either impeached or not."

Certainly. Bush indeed COULD storm into that hospice and do whatever he wished, and then face the legal consequences of those actions. I have never disputed that Bush -could- simply defy the Court. I have also never stated any opinion other than that he would have the ethical and moral right, even duty, to make such a stand.

All I have said is that he lacks the legal right... and in that sense, you and I and everyone at the vigil has just as much "right" and ethical duty to intervene in this as Bush does. No more, and no less.

If anything, due to his duty to uphold the law as interpreted by the courts, he has less right to interfere than we do.

Am I condoning civil disobedience here? Not explicitly, no (although don't hold your breath to hear me condemn someone who does so). All I'm trying to get at is that you and I and everyone else here is just as empowered to defy the Court as Jeb is. It would make more sense for someone else to do it, with Jeb remaining in his position to defend that person in the aftermath.

Qwinn
252 posted on 10/19/2003 12:24:56 PM PDT by Qwinn
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 250 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


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