Supreme Court gets Schiavo dispute
Supreme Court gets Schiavo dispute
by maya bell| Knight Ridder Newspapers
MIAMI | The long legal saga pitting the parents of a severely brain-damaged wom-an against her husband may be winding down - if, as widely expected, the U.S. Supreme Court refuses this week to consider an appeal filed by Gov. Jeb Bush.
Mary Lee Schindler, a 1959 graduate of the former Northside High School in Corning, has been fighting to keep her daughter, Terri Schiavo, alive.
It is risky to predict what the high court will decide Friday, when the justices are scheduled to accept or reject the governor's appeal in the case. No one knows what they will do, only that they could release some decision the following Monday.
But a number of legal scholars say there is little chance the high court will choose to review the Florida Supreme Court decision that struck down what is known as "Terri's Law" for encroaching on the role reserved for judges.
That's because, observers say, there are no federal issues at stake, giving the state Supreme Court the last word on the constitutionality of the statute that empowered the governor to order the reinsertion of the feeding tube sustaining Schiavo six days after it was removed by court order last October.
Lawyers for the governor disagree. In their petition to the U.S. Supreme Court, they argue the governor's federal due-process rights were violated when he was barred from retrying the evidence that prompted a Pinellas County Circuit judge to rule that Terri Schiavo would chose death over her incapacitated state.
Should the high court fail to reinstate Terri's Law, they warn the case will have ominous implications for people with profound disabilities.
The arguments, however, convinced few professors interviewed at four Florida law schools.
"To put it crudely, it's none of the U.S. Supreme Court's business," said Bruce Winick, of the University of Miami School of Law. "The Florida Supreme Court is the final arbiter of what the Florida Constitution means and they have spoken."
Michael Allen, a professor at Stetson University College of Law, which is sponsoring a seminar on the Schiavo case Jan. 28, said he'd be shocked if the high court accepted the appeal.
"There is close to a zero chance," Allen said. "I think the court will see the governor's argument as smoke and mirrors."
If the professors are correct, the only thing stopping Michael Schiavo from halting the twice-a-day tube feedings that have kept his wife alive for nearly 15 years is another round of motions his in-laws are pursuing in state courts. Until they are resolved, a judge has set aside Michael Schiavo's authority to carry out what he says were his wife's wishes.
But even the new lawyers representing Bob and Mary Schindler concede they are waging an uphill battle to keep one of the most litigated right-to-die cases in history - and Terri Schiavo - alive.
"It's a long shot," said Barbara Weller, a member of the Gibbs Law Firm in Pinellas County, which assumed the case late last year. "If we get a miracle from God, we'll win, and that's what we're all praying for."
A one-time insurance clerk, Terri Schiavo collapsed from cardiac arrest in February 1990, enduring precious minutes without oxygen. Now 41, she lives in a Pinellas County nursing home, in what the courts have ruled is a persistent vegetative state that has left her with only the most primitive of brain-stem functions.
She can breathe on her own, but, according to court rulings, her cerebral cortex has all but disappeared, rendering the movements and noises she makes involuntary and meaningless.
Her parents, however, vehemently disagree. They insist their daughter is aware, purposefully interacts with them and could improve with proper rehabilitation.
They are asking Pinellas Circuit Judge George Greer to set aside his prior ruling authorizing Michael Schiavo to discontinue his wife's assisted feedings. Although Terri Schiavo never wrote down her wishes in the event she became incapacitated, Greer agreed with Michael Schiavo that she made them clear in casual conversation: She never wanted to be kept alive artificially.
Now, echoing the governor's arguments, the Schindlers say their daughter's due process rights were violated because she never was represented by her own attorney, and Greer was allowed to act as both her judge and guardian. A hearing on their motion, which Michael Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, says raises issues already settled, is scheduled for Jan. 28.
The Schindlers also are asking the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Lakeland to reconsider its Dec. 29 decision rejecting their argument that their daughter, a devout Catholic, would have changed her end-of-life wishes had she heard a recent papal declaration. Last year, Pope John Paul II said withholding hydration and sustenance from a person in a vegetative state is a sin.
Meanwhile, Felos, frustrated with what he regards as endless court proceedings that revisit issues already settled, has stopped filing responses to the Schindlers' arguments.
It's the same strategy he employed at the U.S. Supreme Court. Calling the governor's appeal "frivolous," he waived Michael Schiavo's right to respond.
By next Monday, he should learn if that was a miscalculation.
http://www.the-leader.com/articles/2005/01/18/local_news/local03.txt
PRAYER BUMP FOR TERRI'S LIFE !
http://www.terrisfight.org/
Terri ping to 922. This is the same article that was posted in the Orlando Sentinel a few days ago. Apparently, there is already a thread ongoing for that one, if anyone wants to join in.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1322151/posts?page=1,50
If anyone would like to be added to or removed from my Terri ping list, please let me know here or by Freepmail.
The Miami reporters print whatever FELOS tells them and by what he shows them.
SIMILAR TO THE WAY FELOS HANDLES GREER IN THE COURTROOM.
The husband's bloodlusting lawyers' purported evidence gets in and Terri's evidence proviing her true condition IS EXCLUDED.
JUDGE GREER IS A PUPPET OF GEORGE FELOS. SO IS JUDGE BAIRD.
This is my opinion based upon the truth and I HAVE SEEN TERRI'S MRI's. The mri's are on a large sized cardboard.
If only Greer wasn't a blind puppet. The Miami reporters are propagandizing for Michael Schiavo. THAT IS THE CONTEXT.