Reinsertion denied by 11th Circuit Panel

Yahoo ^ | 23 March 2005 | AP

[Jeff Head]

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - After losing two consecutive appeals in federal court, Terri Schiavo's parents vowed Wednesday to take their fight to the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) as their severely brain-damaged daughter began her fifth full day without the feeding tube that has kept her alive for more than a decade.

In a 2-1 ruling early Wednesday, a panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta said the parents "failed to demonstrate a substantial case on the merits of any of their claims" that Terri's feeding tube should be reinserted immediately.

"There is no denying the absolute tragedy that has befallen Mrs. Schiavo," the ruling said. "We all have our own family, our own loved ones, and our own children. However, we are called upon to make a collective, objective decision concerning a question of law."

In his dissent, Judge Charles R. Wilson said Schiavo's "imminent" death would end the case before it could be fully considered. "In fact, I fail to see any harm in reinserting the feeding tube," he wrote.

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[Jeff Head]

So do I...but I still hold out hope. The Governor can act, the Supreme Court can act and find that the dissenting opinion in the 11th is the correct one. There are yet several avenues open.

[Jeff Head]

Agreed Grampa Dave. The agenda is clear and they are using this poor woman as an test case and example for our consumption...and the depraved husband as a patsy boy...or perhaps he has bought wholly into the ideology himself. Whatever, it is an aboration and a corrupt, evil way of thinking that should find no firm root on these shores. God help us if it does.

[Jeff Head]

I feel the same. I wish I was in betterhealth right now so I could go down there...feel the same about Arizona BTW.

If the number was large enough, and if the tactics were mapped out, the people would not have to be armed. Send in 20 men, woman and children to peacefuly try and get water to them. Five minutes later after the officer are tied up with those twenty, send in thirty more. Do that three or four times...and then send in two hundred men to simply walk in and occupy the place and begin giving Terri the necessary hydration and food. Have trained medical men amongst them. I do not believe the officers have orders to fire if no violence is brooked. We saw tactics like this work at Klamath.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Greer is a hate-filled maniaical killer, blinded by his desire to murder this woman.

He has been rejected from his church, and has rejected any and all evidence contrary to what his political contributors want introduced.

[Mulder]

What a tragedy. None of them have the virtue to see beyond bad "law" and simply do what is right. Check that, the dissenting opinion certainly did have the willingness and ability to do so.

Thanks for the ping, Jeff. Yes, it's a tragedy, but I'm going to have to disagree with you and probably most others here.

I don't think the Congress had any business getting involved here. If there is/was an attempt on the part to murder her, that is a state matter, and should be investigated and prosecuted as such. In the event of an egregious failure here, there are existing federal laws dealing with "deprivation of civil Rights" and "consirpacy to do so".

Of course, 'the powers that be' don't want to use these laws since it would open a real can of worms.

I think the Congress having a special session to resolve this was nothing more than grandstanding. When is Congress going to do something about REAL abuses of private citizens. Waco? Ruby Ridge? How about all the Americans who have ever been arrested for victimless gun crimes? And so on.

Speaking of "grandstanding", when is she going to testify before that congressional committee where she got subpeanoed?

Funny how our "pro life" leaders will jump through all kinds of hoops to save a woman who will be stuck in bed with a feeding tube for the rest of her life, but do NOTHING for thousands (probably more) of Americans who are rotting in jail at the hands of overzeleous prosecutors and judges (again, remember what happened to the folks that survived Waco?)

I could be totally wrong here, since I haven't followed this thing as closely as most here, but I really don't see the difference between this case and someone kept alive on a respirator or life support with no hope of recovery. What is the difference?

[Jeff Head]

Agreed. The Governor could...the President could...any of these courts could. I pray one or the other will be inspired to become a champion for this downtrodden, innocent woman who is currently at the mercy of raving animals.

[Grampa Dave]

"The agenda is clear and they are using this poor woman as an test case and example for our consumption...and the depraved husband as a patsy boy...or perhaps he has bought wholly into the ideology himself. Whatever, it is an aboration and a corrupt, evil way of thinking that should find no firm root on these shores. God help us if it does."

Unfortunately it has a fairly firm root in America going back decades.

Then, this group aligned itself with the pro abortion and greens with the over population lie a couple of decades ago.

Now we are seeing the ultimate tool in Eugenics used in America. The starving of an innocent victim, Terri.

Tie this in with the Academy Award movie, "Million $ Baby", and we are seeing the real underside of the left wing elites who control the media, movies, entertainment and the Rat party.

[Luis Gonzalez]

"What a tragedy. None of them have the virtue to see beyond bad "law" and simply do what is right."

This certainly is a tragedy.

But stop and think for a second...do you want Judges who judge according to how they "feel" about the law, or according to what the law says?

In most cases, Judges who adjudicate according to whether they think the law is "good" or "bad" end up doing things like overturning anti-sodomy laws.

[Jeff Head]

Read my "check that" statement Luiz. The dissenting Judge got it right IMHO from this perspective IMHO.

Having said that, clearly, there are times when bad immoral law is created. What then is to be done? Either the legislature has to kill it, the Judges have to not use it, or the executive has to not uphold it. They all have a duty in this regard and they are all equal in that duty. Someone has to act. In this case, the rulings by Greer and the entire procedure on what evidence has been allowed and what has not are suspect and for me represnt bad law. It is why the congress acted to, in essence IMHO, move the venue. That is what is the issue here and the Judges are empowered as a result of the Congressional act to review the whole thing from the start. That they are not doing so based on the existing transcripts and testimony is shameful...setting aside that proceeding is exactly what they need to do.

Anyhow my fiend, just my thoughts on the matter. This is a travesty and miscarriage of justice...it is beyond that, it it the willful kiling of an innocent person, who is conscious and not about to die, by the state for the convienence of the husband. it must not stand if we can at all help it.

[Jeff Head]

Well, I believe all of those issues are moot in this specific case while this innocent woman is being starved and dehydrated to death by the state government. The congress acted for one reason and one reason alone...despite the bogus polls, they are being hounded by hundreds of thousands of their constituents to act.

In essence they drected that the case be moved to Federal venue...they changed the venue in the hopes that all the evidence could be heard and not just what Greer has allowed or disallowed. His proceedings, IMHO, are prejudiced and slanted and he should have recused himself long ago.

I agree that other laws on the books could have and should have been used...right now, based on the protective services investigation and Greer's blocking of it, the governor could and should act in a heart beat to take the woman into protective custody pending the outcome of that investigation. He would be within his rights to do so and would shift the firestorm away from Terri, a defenseless woman at the mercy of animals who are killing her, and onto himself, where he can wage it in open court at a much higher level with a much greater chance of success.

I am praying that some such chapmion will be inspired by God to do this type of thing.

[betty boop]

None of them have the virtue to see beyond bad "law" and simply do what is right.

Jeff, I think this is a clear-cut case showing that what is "legal" is not necessarily "lawful," let alone just -- as in "justice." What is missing in this long string of court decisions is precisely what you point to in the above: Virtue.

We must continue to pray for Terri, and hope that justice will be done.

[gswilder]

The Clinton legacy continues. We saw it real time with Elian and Waco and Monica, etc. Now we see the lingring after effects of a judiciary, appointed by Clinton. Now instead of torching innocent women and children at Waco, we are starving them to death in FL.

[LWalk18]

Wasn't the dissenting judge appointed by Clinton? And I believe one of the majority judges was a Bush appointee.

[Jeff Head]

Betty, you are exactly right. Virtue has been absent in this affair...and so many others. The more rampant and wide spread that is, the more we must all fear for our society and Republic. The men who founded this Republic, despite whatever other weaknesses, understood this.

"A general dissolution of the principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy.... While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but once they lose their virtue, they will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader.... If virtue and knowledge are diffused among the people, they will never be enslaved. This will be their great security." - Samuel Adams

"We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."- James Madison

"[N]either the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whose manners are universally corrupt. He therefore is the truest friend of the liberty of his country who tries most to promote its virtue, and who, so far as his power and influence extend, will not suffer a man to be chosen onto any office of power and trust who is not a wise and virtuous man." Samuel Adams

"[I]f we and our posterity reject religious instruction and authority, violate the rules of eternal justice, trifle with the injunctions of morality, and recklessly destroy the political constitution which holds us together, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us, that shall bury all our glory in profound obscurity." Daniel Webster

"Those people who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants."- William Penn

"Bad men cannot make good citizens. It is when a people forget God that tyrants forge their chains. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience, is incompatible with freedom. No free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue; and by a frequent recurrence to fundamental principles." Patrick Henry

"We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other."- John Adams, Oct. 11, 1798

[JCEccles]

At this point I can't help but be thinking that the Schindlers' lawyers are staggeringly incompetent. I don't even have a law degree but I'm pretty damn sure that if I were making the filings, with only the information available to me through the internet, I could get that tube reinserted.

It has nothing to do with the quality of the briefs, and everything to do with the death-cult prejudices of the liberal justices who are working hard to bring a sacrifice to their blood lust god. The judge and justices have been presented with all the evidence and argument needed and then some to rule in Terri's favor.

[Jeff Head]

Actually this dissenting Judge was a Clinton appointee. Might not fit the stereotype, but it is nonetheless true. I cannot speak to his other rulings and positions, but I would be remiss not to recognize and applaud him for this one.

[Manic_Episode]

Matthew 25:
35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
-
40“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’
-
45“He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

[Salvation]

Anyone to contact to voice our unbelief?

[Salvation]

From BBC

Schiavo parents' appeal rejected

 

Mrs Schiavo's husband has fought to have the feeding tubes removed

A US court has rejected an appeal by the parents of a brain-damaged woman to order doctors to resume feeding her.

Terri Schiavo, 41, who has been in a vegetative state since 1990, has received no food or water since Friday.

The three-judge panel in Atlanta, Georgia, ruled 2-1 to deny the parents' appeal, a day after a judge in Florida also refused a similar request.

A lawyer representing her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, said they would file another appeal.

Mrs Schiavo's feeding tube was removed at the request of her husband, Michael Schiavo, who says she would not want to be kept alive artificially and has no hope for recovery.

Mr Schiavo and the Schindlers have been locked in legal battles for years over whether the feeding tube should be removed.

Series of appeals

A panel of three judges from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals had to consider whether to order the reconnection of Mrs Schiavo's feeding tubes to allow her to remain alive while the legal wrangling continues.

TERRI SCHIAVO CASE Feb 1990: Mrs Schiavo collapses May 1998: Mr Schiavo files petition to remove feeding tube, triggering legal battle Feb 2000: Court rules to remove feeding tube Oct 2003: Florida's lower house passes "Terri's Law", allowing governor to order doctors to feed Mrs Schiavo Sept 2004: Florida Supreme Court strikes down law Dec 2004: Case goes to US Supreme Court Jan 2005: Court rejects petition 18 Mar 2005: Florida court again allows removal of tube 22 Mar 2005: Federal judge turns down parents' appeal 23 Mar 2005: Appeals court backs federal ruling Timeline: Terri Schiavo case Q&A: US feed-tube case

But it ruled that Mrs Schiavo's parents had failed "to demonstrate a substantial case" for success, should they be allowed to take to court their claim that their daughter's religious and due process rights had been violated.

The decison comes a day after a judge ruled the Florida courts had not violated Mrs Schiavo's rights by ordering her feeding tube to be disconnected.

The BBC's Lesley Curwen in Washington says it is uncertain whether the Schindlers' next appeal will be heard at a local level or whether it will go to the highest court in the land, the Supreme Court.

However, the Supreme Court has previously refused to intervene in the case.

'Peaceful, calm'

The family claim that Mrs Schiavo is fading fast, our correspondent adds.

Before the latest decision was handed down, Mrs Schiavo's mother made an emotional appeal for the Florida Senate to intervene, saying: "For the love of God, don't let my daughter die of thirst."

Schindler family supporters have protested against the rulings

A lawyer for Mr Schiavo said Terri was "stable, peaceful and calm".

Before the Schindlers filed their latest appeal, Mr Schiavo urged the Atlanta court not to rule in favour of reconnecting the tubes.

"That would be a horrific intrusion upon Mrs Schiavo's personal liberty," his lawyer, George Felos, wrote to the judges.

Congress and President George W Bush intervened over the weekend to allow federal courts to review the case.

The debate over the case has divided the US, with some arguing Mrs Schiavo's life must be preserved and others condemning politicians for interfering in a private family affair.

It is thought Mrs Schiavo could survive for up to two weeks before dying of starvation.

[Jeff Head]

President Bush, Governor Bush, the Supreme Court...and God in Heaven.