Posted on 10/24/2003 5:57:14 PM PDT by joesnuffy
MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH Constitutional showdown brewing over Terri's Law Husband's attorney expects Florida Supremes to rule on intervention by legislators, Jeb Bush
Posted: October 24, 2003 3:40 p.m. Eastern
By Diana Lynne © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
The Florida Supreme Court will be asked next week to consider the constitutionality of Terri's Law, the emergency measure passed by Florida lawmakers to empower Gov. Jeb Bush to order the feeding tube reinserted into Terri Schindler-Schiavo.
No strangers to national controversy, the justices are at once credited and condemned for rulings that ultimately determined the outcome of the 2000 presidential election between Democrat candidate Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush.
Now it's the governing power of Bush's brother, Jeb, that could face scrutiny by the state's high court, as attorney George Felos, who represents Terri's husband, Michael Schiavo, announces intentions to bring their case before the court. Justices have already rejected three motions related to the case.
Felos, who calls Terri's Law "absurdly unconstitutional," believes he can get a challenge before the court in three weeks. He has already mounted a challenge to the law in circuit court in Clearwater, Fla.
"Individuals have a right to control their own body and the right to choose what medical treatment they want and what medical treatment they don't want," Felos previously told WorldNetDaily. "If you've made the decision that medical treatment is no longer a benefit for you and you don't want it, then you do have the legal and constitutional right to refuse it. And I'm an advocate of allowing people to enforce that right."
The right-to-die advocate held a press conference yesterday to counter the rising tide of public outcry against his client's efforts to end Terri's life. The governor's office said it has received more than 165,000 e-mails and thousands of calls in support of Terri and Bush's intervention on her behalf.
"There's a lot of angry people out there over what happened to Terri, and what was done to Terri: being literally, under threat of arrest, yanked from her deathbed and her death process," Felos told reporters at the press conference , according to WFTS. "Just in the last two days, I have received scores of e-mails and calls of outrage over this act. Many people have contacted us offering support, both material and in other ways."
Defending Michael Schiavo against speculation over his motives for wanting his wife dead, Felos insisted he was acting out of love and respect for his wife's desire to "die with dignity."
"Who in God's name would subject themselves to what he has gone through for any other reason?" he said. "He always deeply loved her."
Felos said there was no life insurance policy on Terri and Michael Schiavo would not otherwise benefit financially from his wife's death.
WorldNetDaily has reported Michael Schiavo won more than $1.2 million in 1992 that was to be earmarked for Terri's care and therapy but was never spent for that purpose.
Felos told reporters yesterday the sum in Terri's trust fund had been whittled down to $55,000. While he and Michael Schiavo's other attorney, Deborah Bushnell, say they haven't been paid in over a year, Felos was previously paid $358,434 out of the fund. Bushnell told the St. Petersburg Times she had been paid approximately $80,000 from the fund.
In a move that horrified Terri's family last year, Bushnell also filed a petition with probate Judge George Greer seeking authorization of pre-payment for Terri's cremation and burial expenses out of the fund.
Pat Anderson, the attorney representing Terri's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, has filed multiple petitions seeking the removal of Michael Schiavo as Terri's guardian and chief decision maker. Among her arguments, she claims Michael Schiavo misspent the medical funds.
"While exhausting Terri's money for the purpose of killing her, not one red cent could be found by Schiavo to enhance the quality of her life after receipt of the malpractice award. ... [A]nd the expenditure of nothing for therapy that would reduce the pain of contractures, enhance Terri’s ability to swallow, or facilitate recovery of basic abilities is the grossest form of asset mismanagement," Anderson stated in a petition filed and rejected by Greer last November.
WorldNetDaily has reported Terri sustained brain damage when she mysteriously collapsed in 1990 at the age of 26 and oxygen was cut to her brain for several minutes. The Schindlers have been fighting with their son-in-law for 10 years over the fate of their daughter. He contends his wife is in a persistent vegetative state and told him once she would not want to be kept alive artificially. The Schindlers argue Terri is alert, responsive and vocalizes and maintain she wants to live. She has no written directive on the matter.
Constitutional showdown
In an historic move earlier this week, Florida lawmakers crafted a narrowly worded measure that authorized Bush to issue "a one-time stay to prevent the withholding of nutrition and hydration from a patient" who meets criteria, which apply to Terri.
Some legal scholars agree with Felos and believe the legislators and the governor overstepped their bounds in defying the judicial system. They predict the intervention will spark a constitutional showdown.
"Courts get to decide particular cases, not legislatures," Steven Gey, a law professor at Florida State University, told the New York Times.
In 1995, the Supreme Court ruled Congress was prohibited from reopening final court decisions under the separation-of-powers doctrine.
Gey said Florida's separation-of-powers law is "more rigid" than federal law.
Other scholars wonder whether the law encroaches on Michael Schiavo's constitutional right to privacy.
Still others ask about Terri's rights as a brain-disabled woman who can't speak for herself.
WorldNetDaily reported constitutional expert Herb Titus maintains Bush had a legal obligation to use his executive powers to halt Terri's death.
"Not only does the governor have such power, but the governor has the constitutional duty to prevent any action taken pursuant to such a court order, because such action would violate Ms. Schindler-Schiavo's constitutionally guaranteed 'inalienable right to enjoy and defend life' regardless of her 'physical disability' as secured by Article 1 Section 2 of the Florida State Constitution," Titus, of Chesapeake, Va., wrote in a memorandum faxed to the governor's legal office last week.
Titus represents suspended Chief Justice Roy Moore in his battle over the 10 Commandments monument in Montgomery, Ala.
Attorney Richard Thompson, who heads the Thomas More Law Center, a public-interest law firm in Ann Arbor, Mich., noted in an emergency letter sent to Bush the night Terri's feeding tube was pulled that Terri is "a victim of abuse and neglect," and under Florida law, "it is a crime to abuse or neglect a disabled adult" and to encourage another person to do so.
Thompson called on Bush to launch a full-scale criminal investigation into the circumstances of the case "and to take measures to prevent future harm to Ms. Schiavo pending the outcome of the investigation."
In August, the Schindlers filed a federal lawsuit alleging Michael Schiavo and Felos "combined and conspired to deprive Terri of her constitutional and civil rights."
The 24-page complaint alleged Michael Schiavo had forbidden medical professionals to provide his wife with any therapy or rehabilitation and had even attempted to hasten her death while she was a patient at the Pinellas Park, Fla., hospice he placed her in three years ago.
In a sworn affidavit, Carla Sauer Iyer, a registered nurse who cared for Terri from April 1995 until August of 1996 when she was fired after notifying the police about the case, stated Terri used to talk to her as much as she could and frequently used what sounded like the word "pain." She also interpreted Terri's vocalizing at times as crying "help me."
While acknowledging she had no proof, Iyer said she suspects Michael Schiavo injected Terri, who normally has "very stable" blood sugar levels, with regular insulin to drive her into hypoglycemic shock during his visits.
"Terri would be trembling, crying hysterically and would be very pale and have cold sweats," Iyer wrote. "So I'd check her blood sugar. The glucometer reading would be so low that it was below the range where it would register an actual number reading."
Schiavo has repeatedly and strenuously denied allegations of abuse. Felos described the accusations as "a bunch of garbage." He called caregivers' claims Terri spoke to them "a fabrication."
Updates and other information about Terri's fight for life are posted on the family's website.
Previous stories:
Terri snatched from hospital
Terri lives!
Florida legislators move to rescue Terri
Will 'Terri's Bill' save her life now?
Terri Schiavo denied Last Rites
Gov. Bush 'fails' Terri
Abuse report filed for Terri
Desperate parents petition High Court
Lawyers: Bush can step in for Terri
Starvation begins for Terri Schiavo
Husband protests video showing alert Terri
Terri Schiavo wants to live
No intervention for Schiavo
Joni Eareckson Tada joins vigil for Terri Schiavo
Federal judge says Terri Schiavo must die
Hearing today on woman scheduled to starve
Prayer vigil for Terri Schiavo
Bush steps in for Schindler-Schiavo
Florida AG intervenes in Schiavo lawsuit
Order signed for starvation of disabled woman
Disabled woman wins reprieve
Another 9-11 date with death
Federal judge considers Schiavo case
Federal Court grants emergency hearing in Schiavo case
Attorney: Jeb Bush letter only a 'good first step'
Gov. Bush's plea for Schindler-Schiavo rejected
Jeb Bush intervenes for Schindler-Schiavo
Legal setbacks clear way for Schiavo starvation
Schindler-Schiavo on 'death row'
Husband bars priest from brain-damaged wife
Brain-damaged woman hospitalized
Fight for life bombshell: Terri trying to talk
Petition drive launched for Terri Schiavo
Diana Lynne is a news editor for WorldNetDaily.com.
Apparently Felos doesn't believe in uniform application of the laws - Thanks to her husbands' refusal to rehabilitate Terri, she may never have a say in the matter.
Of allowing people to enforce that right? How about allowing people to force that right on others?
"Courts get to decide particular cases, not legislatures," Steven Gey, a law professor at Florida State University, told the New York Times.
Courts get to decide cases based on laws passed by the legislatures. It seems to me that the FL legislature just passed a law. The courts are to uphold it.
Becki
Scores. Compared to the thousands going the other way, doesn't sound like many.
But what makes it unconstitutional? The mere fact that it changes the governing law for the future shouldn't. After all, that's what all legislation does.
Man "finds" Wife unconscious.
Man keeps Wife unconscious.
Man gets malpractice money for Wife.
Man wants Wife's money.
Man wants Wife dead so Man can have money.
Man gets Lawyer.
Lawyer is/was Hospice Board Member.
Lawyer promises Man that Wife will die at the Hospice...
TERRI SCHIAVO PING! – let me know if you want on/off this ping list
Why... you mean, so their evil will be outed for all to see?
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