Dr. D. James Kennedy: Jeb Bush Legally Obligated to Save Terri

Coral Ridge Ministries Press Release ^ | March 25, 2005 | Dr. D. James Kennedy

[Arthur McGowan]

http://www.coralridge.org/specialdocs/PR_KennedyCallsOnGovernorBush.htm

 

 D. JAMES KENNEDY: GOVERNOR JEB BUSH DUTY BOUND TO ACT TO PRESERVE LIFE OF TERRI SCHIAVO

Fort Lauderdale, March 24, 2005 — Dr. D. James Kennedy issued the following statement today:

Governor Jeb Bush is to be commended for all he has done in seeking to save the life of Terri Schiavo. His course of action thus far has proven fruitless. 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.

As Governor, Jeb Bush is the only legal authority who can save the life of Terri Schiavo. He must act and he must act immediately on her behalf. He must disregard the order of Judge Greer. He has both the authority and the duty to do so under the state constitution.

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." 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.

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

Thomas Jefferson said that “[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 disregarded the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Dred Scott when he issued the Emancipation Declaration.

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

After all this time of praying, petitioning, and lobbying, it comes down to this.
 

###
 D. James Kennedy, Ph.D., is senior minister of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale, and president of Coral Ridge Ministries, an international Christian broadcast outreach.

 

 

[mcg1969]

Umm, dude? Have you checked the news lately?

[grania]

ooooops (dripping, angry sarcasm)

[GeekDejure]

This has something to do with "time travel", right? ;-))

[Hold DiMayo]

Lets remember come election time if the insurance companies donate to Jebs reelection. I find it puzzeling that no politition would come to Terry's rescue. Unless they were bought off with campaine donations.

[mikeus_maximus]

Where's the usual "Jeb was only following the law" retorts?

btw, that's true only for people who buy into the relatively recent doctrine that only the judiciary knows what the law is.

[Brilliant]

According to the Supreme Court, he WASN'T legally obligated to save her. In fact, they claim he was legally obligated NOT to save her.

[Arthur McGowan]

This is a statement of principle. There's going to be another "legal" murder again soon, so it's important to keep making the point. Maybe the governor of whatever state the next "legal" murder is in will fulfill his obligation to protect an innocent citizen from murder.

[Arthur McGowan]

Actually, the Supreme Court declined to deal with the matter. Even if the Supreme Court HAD said what you say they said, they would be wrong. Unless you believe that the Supreme Court is God, which is the theory most popular among the Justices.

[Coop]

I find it puzzeling that no politition would come to Terry's rescue.

I find it puzzling that you could post such a silly claim given that approx. 400 politicians did come to her rescue. Perhaps if you looked a bit closer at the courts, you might find the source of your perplexity.

[Brilliant]

The US Supreme Court may have refused cert, but the Florida Supreme Court affirmed. They may be wrong, but it is they who were wrong, not Bush. Bush did everything he could have done to stop this. In a Constitutional dispute such as this between two branches of government, it is the third which generally breaks the impass. In the end, the legislature sided with the courts when it declined to pass new legislation after the Supreme Court struck down the old legislation. So the legislature broke the impass, and tied Bush's hands.

[Arthur McGowan]

Are you joking? You think Terri is the last person our government is going to murder, if we don't resist?

After they burned the first Jew at Auschwitz, would you have said, "Let it drop! It's OVER!"?

[Arthur McGowan]

You say that the legislature in a sense "voted" for Terri's death by failing to pass another law to save her.

But Jeb Bush's legal authority, and duty, to act didn't flow from the legislation that was before the state senate. It flowed directly from the state constitution and the U.S. Constitution. The failure of the legislature to pass some act is irrelevant.

And when it comes to obeying the law, the three branches do not engage in a "vote"--two against one, etc.

[Terriergal]

He must act and he must act immediately on her behalf. He must disregard the order of Judge Greer. He has both the authority and the duty to do so under the state constitution.

I agree, he had that obligation and didn't do it. He's a coward who thinks more highly of his reputation and career.

[wildandcrazyrussian]

Not to mention that the Bill of Rights has under Amendment VII: "In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise reexamined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law."

Now it seems clear to me that the writers of the Constitution were quite provocatively declaring that judges are NOT God, since it would be much easier all around to just pick such people with infallible judgment instead of all the bother of letting 12 rather ordinary people decide a verdict which may very well be opposite to that which the judge is inclined.

And what's this in Article III, Section 2? "In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme [sic] Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned [preceding paragraph], the supreme [sic] Court shall have appellate Jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make." Note: "sic" is Latin for "thus" and need not imply anything further.

Why have an appellate jurisdiction at all if lower-level judges WERE infallible and exempt from criticism?

What does it mean that the supreme Court can have appellate jurisdiction as to "Law AND Fact"???? I thought everybody has been saying upper-level courts are forbidden to review the [alleged] FACTS of Terri Schindler (schiavo)'s case and can only deal with legal PROCEDURE?

And then what would have prevented Congress (other than Democrat Party opposition) from voting to declare that this case was in fact suitable for fitting under "with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make"?

I believe that one good aspect of this whole judicial murder affair is that more and more people come to realize that the judiciary can be as corrupt and unworthy of trust as any other branch of government, and it is healthy to know that fact.

[k2blader]

There's going to be another "legal" murder again soon, so it's important to keep making the point. Maybe the governor of whatever state the next "legal" murder is in will fulfill his obligation to protect an innocent citizen from murder.

BUMP.

[kingattax]

Jeb isn't running for re-election