The Life-Protecting Judicial Limitation Act of 2003[1] - Amends the Federal judicial code to deny the district courts of the United States, the District Court of Guam, the District Court of the Virgin Islands, the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims jurisdiction to hear or determine any abortion-related case.
It was introduced in the U.S. House on April 1, 2003 and currently has only 3 cosponsors.
FaxNotes May 2003[2] gives a short description of this proposed legislation and Jan 2004 FaxNotes[3] states, "If legal protection of the right to life is to be restored in the United States it will take a majority of Members of the U.S. House and Senate who will exercise their powers under the U.S. Constitution to withdraw jurisdiction from the Courts over these matters," which is assumed to be an allusion to the Life-Protecting Judicial Limitation Act of 2003.
The Republican National Coalition for Life appears to be the only pro-life organization that is aware of H. R. 1546. This proposed legislation was also introduced by Rep. Ron Paul, M.D. in 1999 and 2002, yet pro-life organizations remain unaware, or opposed to the bill.
Jurisdiction removal from federal district Courts removes appellate jurisdiction from the U.S. Supreme court. H. R. 1546 fails to remove U.S. Supreme Court appellate jurisdiction over State Supreme Courts, (see George W. Bush, Et Al., Petitioners V Albert Gore, Jr., Et Al.) and wouldn't prevent a State law from being nullified on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which appears to be the only flaw in the present version of bill. (U.S. Constitution, Article III, §1 and §2, permits Congress to strip ALL appellate jurisdiction from the U.S. Supreme Court.)
Nevertheless, the bill is a major step in restoring Federalism as described in Federalist No. 39 and comports with the incremental strategy accepted by most pro-life organizations. Additionally, the concept of the bill could be incorporated into a Right To Life Amendment for the U.S. Constitution, returning the issue to the States as it was prior to Roe v. Wade.
American Life League News, 10/31/03[4], states, "Now that President Bush has promised to sign the partial birth abortion bill into law, the court challenge will not be far behind." How right that turned out to be - "less than one hour after the president signed the legislation, a federal judge in Nebraska - U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf, appointed in 1992 by Mr. Bush's father - issued a limited temporary restraining order against the law."[5] PPFA & Planned Parenthood of Golden Gate filed a lawsuit in a San Francisco federal court Oct. 31, and The National Abortion Federation filed a suit in New York on the same grounds. In both cases, the judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and imposed a temporary injunction on the ban. Had the Life-Protecting Judicial Limitation Act of 2003 been the law of the land, the lawless federal courts would have had to dismiss the case for lack of jurisdiction. They could no more hear the case than a Tennessee traffic court could hear a case involving a Cuban speedster in Havana. PPFA, Planned Parenthood, and The National Abortion Federation would experience the unmitigated horror of having their precious lawsuit aborted by a federal judge.
Once pro-lifers experience the Constitutional power that Congress has over the federal courts - "politicians who only want to focus on one manner of murder so that they could claim enough pro-life credentials to guarantee re-election" - will no longer be able to hide behind the long flowing robes of federal judges, like the small child who hides behind the long dress of his mother when frightened. Subsequent legislation to silence the U.S. Supreme Court and State Supreme Courts, will no longer be met with the frightened exclamation by the politician who states, "but what about the Courts!" The heat of the electoral spotlight will be focused exactly where it needs to be: The 'pro-life' politician, not the unaccountable pro-murder judge.
Population Connection, formerly Zero Population Growth, in the Fall 2003 edition of "The Reporter"[6], called the existence of H. R. 1546, "frightening," and went on to state that the bill had no chance of becoming law. With abortionists opposing the bill and pro-lifers doing nothing to support it, their prediction will prove to be 100% correct.
It has been stated that H. R. 1546 needs to be explained in an article. A question/answer format with Rep. Ron Paul, M.D. (TX), or Dr. Herbert W. Titus, Senior Legal Advisor to The Liberty Committee[7], of which Dr. Paul is chairman, may be suitable for Celebrate Life Magazine[8], FaxNotes, and other Pro-Life groups.
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