An emergency filing to the high court that seeks to reinsert Schiavo's feeding tube while the case is litigated would go first to Justice Anthony Kennedy, a Reagan appointee who oversees such appeals out of the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Kennedy, who has staked a moderate position on social issues, would have the option to act on the petition alone, although on previous emergency requests involving Schiavo he has referred the matter to the full nine-member court.
One of the problems here is if Justice Kennedy reaches out to Uganda for his legal precedents. Their judges still rule on witchcraft charges.
Sorry.......when I reached this point I could not continue for this is a blatant LIE!!
Where are all the rabid terri supporters?
WHY are people still calling this a "right to die" case? Call it what it is...a "right to kill the innocent" case.
Well, honey, you don't seem to realize that this isn't in the federal realm now to decide a family-law issue.
It's about time to recognize that this isn't about the impropriety of spousal rights, legal guardianship or power of attorney. This is about judicial activism that favors one party over the other on grounds other than the merits of the case, existing law and core principles that underlie all law in this land, that is, our sovereign rights as individual human beings.
The Constitutional "scholars" who have been arguing that "due process has been done over and over again" fail to recognize, whether by ignorance or intent matters not, that due process is not applied merely by going through the motions of procedure but must be manifested with the spirit of impartiality and observed by following the intent of the letter of the law not just its course.
That is why Section 1 of Amendment XIV closes with a conditional statement concerning equal application of the law. It indicates, in fact mandates, that due process must be applied without prejudice or the entire process fails Constitutional muster.
...nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
The honored legal standing of a spouse's power of attorney should not be in question here and I don't believe it has been. I would not support Congress, the President or anyone else who challenges its traditional standing.
It is time now, however, to actively answer the question raised in this case; "has Judge Greer elevated spousal right of attorney to an absolute that exceeds the individual inalienable right to life?" which is stretching that right beyond tradition or reason. The tradition I speak of is the American tradition embodied in the DoI, "we hold these truths to be self-evident", that life and liberty are the most honored rights of all. In fact they are held as sacrosanct.
If the Dems want to invoke more medieval or Mideastern traditions of spousal rights like bigamy, beating and the right to buy or sell a wife they are welcome to. That's probably not quite as repugnant as infanticide.
Let us also remember that the Jews were duly processed in Hitler's Germany. They rarely failed to follow procedure to the letter.
ping
"The Supreme Court ruled 15 years ago that a terminally ill patient has a constitutional right to decline medical treatment. But it also said that right was not absolute, holding that a state may impose a high legal burden on a family to show a patient had actually consented.
She did not leave a "living will" indicating her wishes. Her parents also say Michael Schiavo has a conflict of interest as his wife's legal guardian because he has a longtime girlfriend, with whom he has children.
"One big worry is that, obviously, she's not brain dead. But is she really in a 'persistent vegetative state'? If she isn't, no one should be deciding to cut her off," said Martha Field, a Harvard law professor. "We're also in a place where it's important to draw the line in consent because, realistically, it isn't Terri's choice, it's her husband's choice."
The Supreme Court has not always deferred automatically to states on the delicate question of life and death.