Judge Rejects Bush Effort in Schiavo Case

Srockton Record ^ | Nov 7, 7:35 PM EST | VICKIE CHACHERE

[tessalu]

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- A judge Friday rejected an effort by Gov. Jeb Bush to dismiss a challenge to the law that allowed him to order that a severely brain-damaged woman be kept alive over her husband's objections.

Bush's attorneys now have until Monday evening to file arguments defending the law, quickly passed and signed last month so that Terri Schiavo's feeding tube could be reinserted six days after her husband, Michael Schiavo, had it removed.

Michael Schiavo and the American Civil Liberties Union have sued Bush, saying the law infringes on Terri Schiavo's right to privacy and the separation of power provisions of the Florida Constitution.

The governor's attorneys had argued that the lawsuit should have been filed in Tallahassee, where the law was enacted. Circuit Court Judge W. Douglas Baird rejected that argument Friday. Randall Marshall, legal director for the ACLU of Florida, said the governor's earlier filing was merely a "delaying tactic." Jacob DiPietre, a spokesman for the governor, said Bush's attorneys would make recommendations to him after reviewing Baird's order.

"Procedural motions aside, we are confident that once the case is properly before the court, the law will be found constitutional," DiPietre said. "The governor is committed to upholding the state constitution and to protecting all Florida citizens' rights to life, especially those who are the most vulnerable."

[BlueNgold]

Another unbiased headline. ahem ... Since when was a ruling on a procedural motion headline news?

[AndyJackson]

is Terri Schiavo for better or worse, sort of CAUGHT in an ongoing battle between the ACLU and right to life?

There Greta, in her on ignorance has framed the question exactly and put the battling powers in there place. But she thinks, just like the ACLU, that right to life is something believed in by right-winged kooks. How does someone whose names suggests a belief in Civil Liberties take the side of state sanctioned right to death. How? SHE thinks that by pinning labels on people, she can show that it is JUST political. But words have meaning, sometimes even the words that soft-headed leftists mistakenly use.

Unfortunately, it has come down to a battle between right to life and the ACLU representing apparently the opposite, and the only opposite of a right to life is a right to death. As WFB once said, principles have edges and they can cut sharply.

[pollywog]

"Procedural motions aside, we are confident that once the case is properly before the court, the law will be found constitutional," DiPietre said. "The governor is committed to upholding the state constitution and to protecting all Florida citizens' rights to life, especially those who are the most vulnerable."

Any thoughts from you scholars of the law??

[Saundra Duffy]

Figures. The Gov of Florida and the State Legislature saved Terri's life and now the judges and courts are trying to starve her again. Remind me never to step foot in Florida. And you thought California was bad!