Minister to Jeb Bush: Disobey court order (governor must 'disregard' judge to save Terri)

World Net Daily ^ | 3/24/05

[Libloather]

STARVATION: DAY 7
Minister to Jeb Bush: Disobey court order
D. James Kennedy says governor must 'disregard' judge to save Terri
Posted: March 24, 2005
5:00 p.m. Eastern

With all legal remedies apparently exhausted, a prominent evangelical Christian leader is urging Jeb Bush to disobey a judge's order barring the Florida governor from intervening to save the life of Terri Schiavo.

In a statement shortly after Judge George Greer's decision today, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., minister D. James Kennedy pointed to Bush "as the only legal authority who can save the life of Terri Schiavo. "

Kennedy, president of Coral Ridge Ministries, said Bush "must act and he must act immediately on her behalf."

"He must disregard the order of Judge Greer," Kennedy said. "He has both the authority and the duty to do so under the state constitution."

This afternoon, Greer rejected Bush's request to grant the governor protective custody. Yesterday, he barred the Department of Children & Families from taking custody.

This morning, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a request from Terri Schiavo's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, for an emergency order allowing Schiavo's feeding tube to be reinserted.

As WorldNetDaily reported, Bush appeared to be clearing the way for unilateral action when he appeared at a news conference yesterday afternoon to confirm the DCF, under his authority, has the legal right to remove Terri Schiavo, by force if necessary, from the hospice where she has lived the past five years.

Bush said new information had come to light warranting intervention, including a review of Terri Schiavo's condition by neurologist Dr. William Cheshire, who claims she may have been misdiagnosed. Cheshire believes Schiavo to be in a "minimally conscious state," not a "persistent vegetative state" as Greer has determined.

"It is imperative that she be stablized so the DCF team can fulfill their statute to review the facts surrounding the case," Bush said.

Kennedy said Bush should be commended for his efforts over the past two years -- which include the state legislature's passage of "Terri's Law" -- but he noted those efforts "thus far has proven fruitless." The law later was declared unconstitutional.

"Neither the state legislature nor the courts, state or federal, have been willing to act on behalf of this helpless woman who is now within hours of death," Kennedy said.

Kennedy points out the Florida constitution states in Article I, Section 2, that "[a]ll natural persons, female and male alike, are equal before the law, and have inalienable rights, among which are the right to enjoy and defend life ... ." According to the Constitution, "no person shall be deprived of any right [including the right to enjoy life] because of ... physical disability."

As governor, Jeb Bush has the "supreme executive power," and the constitutional duty, stated in Article IV, Section 1, to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed," Kennedy said.

The governor, who is sworn to uphold the constitution, is obligated to safeguard this constitutional guarantee of the "inalienable right ... to enjoy and defend life," regardless of physical disability, he argued.

"The governor may not disregard that obligation even if a member of the judiciary has ordered otherwise," Kennedy said. "He is not bound by a court order that is at odds with a constitutional guarantee."

Kennedy cited Thomas Jefferson, who said, "[T]o consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions [is] a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy."

Abraham Lincoln, Kennedy pointed out, disregarded the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Dred Scott when he issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

"Governor Bush has tried patiently to work with the courts and the legislature but to no avail," Kennedy said. "Now, at the very last moment, he has a constitutional duty to protect Terri Schiavo’s 'inalienable right ... to enjoy and defend life.'"

After all the "praying, petitioning, and lobbying," it comes down to this, Kennedy said: "Jeb Bush must choose between the clear mandate of Florida's constitution and a judiciary which, in this case, has acted in defiance of that state supreme law."

Similar arguments were brought to Florida's capital this morning by former Judicial Watch chairman Larry Klayman and former presidential candidate Alan Keyes.

Klayman, a candidate last year for the U.S. Senate from Florida, believes that since Bush "is the supreme executive power of the state of Florida, he has the right and duty to step in and, in effect, pardon Terri Schaivo from the death sentence that has been unduly placed upon her by the court system."

Keyes wrote a column published this morning by WorldNetDaily, arguing for Bush to step in and save Schiavo amid judicial abuse of the separation of powers.

Yesterday, religious and political groups banded together to urge Gov. Bush and his brother, President Bush, to use their executive powers to order police to take Terri Schiavo into protective custody.

Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, said that by requesting permission from Judge Greer, Bush appears to have limited his options.

"By going to the court you set yourself up for a difficult problem, because if Jeb Bush were to send in the police now, he would set up the risk for contempt of court," Sekulow said in an interview on the Sean Hannity radio show today.

Sekulow said that while sympathetic, as an officer of the court, he could not advise Bush to defy the judge.

Schindler family spokesman Randall Terry, however, who also was on the phone with Hannity, contended Bush does have statutory authority.

"The question is, can a judge tell a governor he can't obey the law," the pro-life activist said. "The law allows the DCF to intervene. Even by asking [whether or not a judge should be defied] we are playing into the hands of judicial tyrants ... ."

[Libloather]

I'm still wondering why Greer is still on the case after snubbing that Congressional order...

[Diogenesis]

Why is Sandy Berger walking free after stealing documents which would have landed YOU in Gitmo?

Secretary of Defense Cohen, Impeached Bill Clinton, Albright, and long-accepted CODE-level thief
and document destroyer National Security Adviser Sandy Berger,
holding court in the Ronald Reagan Building on April 25, 1999
The Impeached Bill Clinton: "We were all making comments
we shouldn't have about how the meeting was getting very boring.
So finally we decided we had to make like the monkey. Cohen
started this 'hear no evil,' and then I was next so I spoke no evil,
then Madeleine saw no evil, so Sandy Berger said, 'I'm evil.'"

[1Old Pro]

If Jeb needs to break the law to save a life, good.

[Cultural Jihad]

Abraham Lincoln, Kennedy pointed out, disregarded the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Dred Scott when he issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

Worth repeating.

[randog]

"You save her."
"I ain't gonna save her--you save her!"
"I ain't gonna save her--you save her!"
"I ain't gonna...."

[MisterRepublican]

Because Judge Greer is the ultimate authority in America today. All hail, Judge Greer! His rule is unquestionable. The US President, the US Congress and the Governor of Florida are impotent in the face of his mighty reign.

[squarebarb]

Sandy Berger is only one of many, many Democrats who know all you have to do is get it done. Ignore the laws and the rules and guess what? You will be lionized. Janet Reno and Berger are Democrats who KNOW this rule;

'Get the thing done and let them howl'.

But Republicans value their damnable clubbiness, their 'gentlemanly' rules, their whited sepulchures. Wimps! cowards!

Venting all over every Terri Shiavo thread I come to.

[the Deejay]

Sandy Berger said, 'I'm evil.'"

At a glance, it looks more like Berger 'cut the cheese.'

[CondorFlight]

Ditto. Why isn't Greer held in contempt of Congress?

(Oh! I guess he's a judge;and judges don't have to obey Congressional subpoenas. . .)

[Ann Archy]

Judge Greer is nor KING GREER! More powerful than the Governor, US CONGRESS, and the PRESIDENT!!

WHY wasn't their a contempt order by the Atty. General to King Greer?

[Stellar Dendrite]

How dare you people question Sandy Berger's patriotism!!

[politeia]

The real question is whether Greer has overstepped his authority by ordering that no one can give Terri food or water by mouth. This on the face of it cannot be legal and why George or Jeb Bush haven't blasted Greer out of that courtroom on this one I will never understand.

Food and water given by mouth are not life support or extraordinary means in any shape, form or fashion. No judge has the power to order a person be denied food and water by mouth. I defy anyone to show me a legal authority for such an abomination. Why is Jeb waiting? Has this specific facet of this case been challenged? If not, why not?

[ambrose]

Funny... all those people calling on Jeb Bush to break the law are unwilling to do so themselves.

[GarySpFc]

I have a world of respect for James Kennedy. That said, Judge Bork today said Bush could not simply grab Terri, and in legal matters I respect Bork more.

[zarf]

You guys have gone completely mental.

FR has really tanked over this Shiavo thing.

This issue is not worth provoking a constitutional crisis.

It's over.

God bless the Schindler family, but it's over.

[Nowhere Man]

[basque]

Why can't JEB or 43 do an Elian Gonzales repeat?

[MarylandPines]

Let me tell you something Zarf: We are hurtling towards a civil war the way things are going in this country right now.

[isthisnickcool]

Similar arguments were brought to Florida's capital this morning by former Judicial Watch chairman Larry Klayman and former presidential candidate Alan Keyes.

Well that's the end then. Klayman has yet to win a case I'm aware of.

By the way, at guidestar.org the 2003 Judicial Watch IRS 990 indicates that Klayman was paid approx. $90K a month in 2003 over the 9 months he was there and that he owed JW money and "collection is being persued". I wonder what that means?