For what it's worth, here is part of the Federal court's decision.
"There is no denying the absolute tragedy that has befallen Mrs. Schiavo," Judges Ed Carnes and Frank M. Hull of the appellate court wrote in their 32-page decision. "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 the end, and no matter how much we wish Mrs. Schiavo had never suffered such a horrible accident, we are a nation of laws, and if we are to continue to be so, the pre-existing and well-established federal law . . . must be applied to her case."
Doesn't look like judicial activism to me.
It is not judicial activism on the part of either Federal court that has reviewed the Florida case. However, it is a rubber stamp of what appears to be a flawed decision by the court of original jurisdiction.
Do you think judicial activists are always going to come right now and say "We don't care what the law says--neener neener"!? Of course they'll try to claim they're working within the framework of the very laws they cravenly ignore.
Read the dissent, written by a Clinton appointee.
In point of fact, this is 'negative' judicial activism--they are simply refusing to implement the will of Congress as expressed in the legislation.
I can 'negatively' kill you by NOT interfering with your murderer's progress.
This was famously expressed in the observation that 'the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.'
The aphorism still holds.
The actual appellate courts are just doing their jobs, however Whitmore hearing an appeal. He, like Judge Greer, are using their judicial discretion...under law, to destroy a human life without a complete hearing of fact as it stands today.
Activism? Maybe not, however it is Judicial Tyranny if we don't real them in.