'Judge' Stanley F. Birch Jr.
The 'law' mandates Terri must be murdered via starvation. Nobody is allowed to interfere the court's 'order'. Signs of the future in America.
Posted on 03/30/2005 5:22:03 PM PST by Crackingham
The latest rejection of the Terri Schiavo case by a federal court was accompanied by a stinging rebuke of Congress and President Bush from a seemingly unlikely source: Judge Stanley F. Birch Jr., one of the most conservative jurists on the federal bench.
Birch authored opinions upholding Alabama's right to ban the sale of sex toys and Florida's ability to prohibit adoptions by gay couples. Both rulings drew the ire of liberal activists and the elation of traditional and social conservatives.
Yet, in Wednesday's 11th Circuit Court of Appeals decision to deny a rehearing to Schiavo's parents, Birch went out of his way to castigate Bush and congressional Republicans for acting "in a manner demonstrably at odds with our Founding Fathers' blueprint for governance of a free people - our Constitution."
Birch said he couldn't countenance Congress' attempt to "rob" federal courts of the discretion they're given in the Constitution. Noting that it had become popular among "some members of society, including some members of Congress," to denounce "activist judges," or those who substitute their personal opinions for constitutional imperatives, Birch said lawmakers embarked on their own form of unconstitutional activism.
"This is a judge who, through a political or policy lens, falls pretty squarely in the Scalia/Thomas camp," said law professor and constitutional expert David Garrow, referring to the two most conservative Supreme Court justices. "I think it's a sad commentary that there wasn't a voice like his present in the Congress, because he's saying what a Republican constitutional conservative should be saying."
Jay Sekulow, the chief legal counsel for the conservative American Center for Law and Justice, said Birch got it wrong, while two other judges - including one appointed by Bill Clinton - were right to say they'd accept the Schiavo case.
"I think this whole case is redefining ideological positions," said Sekulow, whose organization has been consulting with lawyers for Schiavo's parents. "I would think an originalist view of the Constitution would come out differently than what Birch says." Originalists try to adhere to the precise language and intent of the Constitution.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino declined to address Birch's decision directly, saying the president is "saddened by this extraordinary case and continues to support all those who stand up to defend life."
Birch's criticisms highlight the legal conundrum that surrounds the Schiavo case and point to the difficulty it continues to present for some Republicans. Congressional leaders may have believed that they were playing to the party's socially conservative wing by taking extraordinary steps to have the federal government intervene. But traditional conservatives have decried their abandonment of the party's adherence to limited government, states' rights and separation of powers.
Additionally, in order for Schiavo's parents to win in federal court, judges would have to embrace a doctrine of constitutional due process that conservatives have decried. Such "substantive" due process, which Justice Antonin Scalia sharply criticized in a recent speech as part of the threat that will "destroy the Constitution."
Conservative completely, arrogant absolutely
Victory or Death.
But but but it's ok to break the law this time according to those who want to send in the 101st Airborne to get Terri.
SPINELESS PARK, Fla. (AP) - Jeb Bush has assumed a fetal position and is resting comfortably. Family
members report that he has never been more beautiful.
I don't give a damn where this judge falls along the political spectrum. I do know that we have murderers who were sentenced to death long before Terri Schiavo became disabled and they're still living.
Satan must be laughing his ass off right about now - and I have scant hope for my country.
Constitutionally Correct!
It seems to me that a federal court could have easily reviewed whether terri Schiavo was being denied of her most basic constitutional right - life, based on the de novo review Congress asked the court to perform.
I'm aware of so many instances in which the federal courts reach into all kinds of situations, but we have to be blasted by this judge for trying to save the life of one poor lady.
This strikes me as equivalent to saying, "My country, right or wrong." This judge is saying, "The judiciary, right or wrong."
Sorry, if you truly love your country you don't back politicians who demonstrably do something wrong. And you don't back judges who demonstrably do something wrong, either.
Congress had every right, indeed a constitutional duty, to intervene in this case, because Terri is being deprived of the most basic of constitutional rights, the right to life. I think badly of congress for backing down, not for trying to act in the first place.
We are a nation of laws, not men.
Thank you.
Is that right in the Constitution to crap all over Terri's 14th Amendment rights?
14th Amendment
Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; 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.
Guess its time for all judges to take a literary test. Oh I forgot, Judge Greer is blind just like the justice he dispenses!
Just kill the poor woman! It's all perfectly legal and very conservative, too!
If you want the federal courts to review every single one of these end-of-life situations, we're gonna have to have A LOT more judges.
Janet Reno... the new hero of the pro-life movement.
Very well stated. The longer this goes on, the more I'm able to take my emotions out of it and see this for the Constitutional situation it is, at it's core.
This fight doesn't end with Terri's death, nor should it.
'Judge' Stanley F. Birch Jr.
The 'law' mandates Terri must be murdered via starvation. Nobody is allowed to interfere the court's 'order'. Signs of the future in America.
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