Jeb has to wait until the court appeals are exhausted and a hearing held before judge Greer before Terri is taken into custody, otherwise he could be in violation of a court order.
So, lemme get this right.
Jeb is afraid of being in violation of a court order.
But Greer can flaunt a Congressional subpoena and no-one is a bit concerned?
This entire thing is insane.
Our side is playing by the rules. Theirs is not. Our side will lose with that strategy. It's time to do what is "right", and sort it out in the end.
"Jeb has to wait until the court appeals are exhausted and a hearing held before judge Greer before Terri is taken into custody, otherwise he could be in violation of a court order."
That's true, but let's play this out as the deadliest and hardest form of deadly political hardball.
Suppose Governor Bush acts by ordering in state officials to take custody of Terry and save her life.
He has defied a judicial order, yes.
Suppose he states that he is acting to preserve the life of a citizen, his duty under the Constitution, against a travesty of justice, where there is a conflict between his duties to protect a citizen, and his duty to follow judicial opinions.
And he refuses to back down.
He is governor, and he does have the power to order the cops to do things, and to fire people for disobedience.
So, the buck stops with him.
Then what?
Well, Terri Schiavo is alive, at least for the moment, and starts getting treatment.
Bush has defied a court order.
The court, all the way up to the Florida Supremes, can issue a flurry of orders, but Bush says they're all related to the same issue, and he has made his decision.
At that point, the court is POWERLESS.
You have a direct standoff between the Executive and Judicial branches of the State of Florida, and the Judicial Branch has no independent forces to be able to compel the Governor to act.
So, you have a political case of defiance of a Court.
The only recourse is to the Legislature, and the legislature could either pass a law to compel the governor to act according to the court (but the Legislature would probably deadlock on that), or impeach the governor (and the legislature would deadlock on that too).
Net result: Terri Schiavo is alive, Jeb Bush will have established a principle of Executive override of the Florida Courts in order to save a life in a Right-to-Life case, not been impeached, remain in power, and the defeated pro-death side will scream impotently that the Nazis have taken over Florida.
JEB wins, and Terri lives.
Now remember, JEB's a multimillionaire who has said he's not thinking of the Presidency. So, he does not economically NEED this job, and this is - he has said - his last job. He has nothing to lose, when you get right down to it, other than having a frustrated Judiciary and frustrated pro-death party hate him. They already do.
The only thing Bush has to lose, at worst, is an office he doesn't need.
Morality demands that he save this woman.
Legality, as currently understood, says he can't defy the court.
But the structure of our system says that, actually, he probably CAN defy the court in this case and establish a new principle of executive parity with the co-equal Judiciary when the life or death of a citizen is involved.
It will take testosterone and a willingness to play the hardest of deadly hardball to do this.
He should.
When Jeb pardons a criminal, he directly violates ALL COURT ORDERS related to the proscribed punishment.