And as the conservatives demonstrated first-hand in the Terri Schiavo case, they too are not above expecting activist judges to rule
their way every once in a while.
Of course, conservatives have God and good intentions on their side, so it's OK to do that.
Of course I agree with you (as you can see from just two of my past posts on the Schiavo matter).
I don't which is more hypocritical...liberals demanding that courts follow the law and respect state's rights...or conservatives demanding that the federal courts intervene where state legislatures wouldn't
which do you think?
Posted by Irontank to cryptical
On News/Activism 03/30/2005 1:43:57 PM PST · 8 of 11
I agree with the author 100%...the federal Republicans lack of interest in limiting their powers to those enumerated in Art I, Section 8 of the Constitution and the courts lack of interest in forcing the federal government to do so, save Thomas (and Scalia sometimes), has convinced me that the sovereignty of the states (to the extent it exists as a practical matter anymore) is dying....and so is our Constitutional republic of decentralized government.
Seeing as how the Florida governor, legislature and courts have not done anything to save Terri Schiavo...it seems that this is not as clear-cut a case of murder as some would have it.
And if none of the 3 branches in Florida...where they've been dealing with the case for 15 years...are doing anything more at this point...why is Congress and the federal courts involving themselves
There is no more a legitimate 14th Amendment issue here than there was in Roe v Wade, in the Lawrence case in Texas...or in any of the cases where the left used the power of the federal government to impose its will on a sovereign state
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Posted by Irontank to FlipWilson
On News/Activism 03/23/2005 12:30:43 PM PST · 30 of 31
The Schiavo Bill did not create any new jurisdication of the Federal District Court in Florida...what it did was require it to hear, de novo, (without regard to or weight given to the state court decisions) the questions raised regarding alleged violations of Teri Schiavo's US Constitutional rights. Federal courts' jurisdiction to hear US Constitutional issues is explicitly provided for in Article III.
Terri Schiavo's parents claimed in federal court that the order to remove her feeding tube violated her 14th Amendment rights to due process and equal protection and her 1st Amendment right to free exercise of her Catholicism.
So, what Congress did was not unconstitutional but it is something that should trouble all us who favor the decentralization of power and our federalist form of government...
On the other hand, the Republicans new affection for big centralized federal government (e.g. Partial Birth Abortion Bill, action on gay marriage, No Child Left Behind, federal criminal laws, the USA PATRIOT Act, the recent Real ID (drivers license standards) Act, etc.) have finally convinced me that most so-called conservatives are no less hypocritical than those on the left now crying about the "gutting of state's power" (as the NY Times editorial put it yesterday).
I guess state's rights is mostly the refrain of whoever is out of power at the federal time at any one time. And those in power at the federal level will always argue that you just can't trust those states