In Florida Right-to-Die Case, Legislation Puts the Constitution at Issue

In enacting a tightly focused, one-time-only law that effectively reversed a series of court decisions allowing a Florida man to withdraw life support from his brain-damaged wife, the Florida Legislature has created a constitutional crisis, legal scholars said yesterday.

”Courts get to decide particular cases, not legislatures,” said Steven G. Gey, a law professor at Florida State University. …
Continue reading Another Constitutional Crisis brought on by the Radical, Intrusive Right →

Scorning the Courts in Florida

Drawing the line between life and death is one of society’s most challenging tasks. Florida’s courts discharged that duty admirably when they ruled that Terri Schiavo, who has been in a vegetative state for 13 years, should be allowed to die. But the State Legislature and Gov. Jeb Bush have mocked the courts’ careful deliberations and embarked on a ghoulish medical journey by directing that her feeding resume. The courts should reaffirm Ms. Schiavo’s right to die in peace. …

The Florida courts approached the matter with the gravity it deserves. … The Florida Legislature, prodded by the religious right, hastily passed a law authorizing the governor to order the feeding of patients in a vegetative state who lacked living wills. … The new law infringes the right to die that the Supreme Court recognized in 1990.

George Bush is part of the religious right; Jeb Bush is jumping to their call. You want four more years of that? mjh

Georgia runs from the MATRIX

The state of Georgia has pulled out of the U.S. Department of Justice sponsored MATRIX (Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange) information collection program, leaving data only on its felons and sexual offenders behind in the Orwellian database.

”The criminal, prison, and sexual predator information previously submitted will remain part of the database. This information is relevant to the crime fighting purpose of the pilot project, but personal information of law-abiding citizens is not. I feel today’s decision reflects a proper balance between fighting crime and respecting the right to privacy,” said Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue.

mjh’s Weblog Entry – 09/24/2003: MATRIX (Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange)

Senate Approves Bill to Prohibit Type of Abortion

[I]n the Senate, advocates of the right to abortion, led by Ms. Boxer, insisted on one more day of debate before final passage. They characterized the bill as an assault on the right to privacy established by the Roe case, and an intrusion into the ability of doctors and patients to make their own medical choices. [Just like the Florida case. See the pattern emerging? — mjh]

”This bill puts doctors in the untenable position of choosing the best and most appropriate care for their patients or risk going to jail,” said Vicki Saporta, the abortion federation’s president. …

But proponents of the ban say the legal climate may change, particularly if Mr. Bush wins re-election. They are hopeful that, by the time the case reaches the Supreme Court, Mr. Bush will have had an opportunity to appoint new justices, and the slim 5-to-4 majority that rejected the Nebraska law will no longer hold together.

”It would only require the change in one mind, or the change in one justice, so that those on the other side who make confident predictions aren’t as confident,” said Douglas Johnson, a spokesman for the National Right to Life Committee, which has spent years fighting for the ban.

Of the Nebraska case, Mr. Johnson said, ”Congress is now inviting the Supreme Court to re-examine that extreme and inhumane decision.” [That is, Roe v. Wade and the right to an abortion under any circumstances. — mjh]

Rumsfeld’s war-on-terror memo

DoD has been organized, trained and equipped to fight big armies, navies and air forces. It is not possible to change DoD fast enough to successfully fight the global war on terror; an alternative might be to try to fashion a new institution, either within DoD or elsewhere — one that seamlessly focuses the capabilities of several departments and agencies on this key problem. [Oh, god, a Department of Foreignlands Security? — mjh]

Today, we lack metrics to know if we are winning or losing the global war on terror. Are we capturing, killing or deterring and dissuading more terrorists every day than the madrassas and the radical clerics are recruiting, training and deploying against us? [Aren’t our efforts encouraging more terrorists? — mjh]

Does the US need to fashion a broad, integrated plan to stop the next generation of terrorists? The US is putting relatively little effort into a long-range plan, but we are putting a great deal of effort into trying to stop terrorists. The cost-benefit ratio is against us! Our cost is billions against the terrorists’ costs of millions.

Do we need a new organization?

[From a memo written by Donald Rumsfeld]

Florida errs in right-to-die case

Why is the state’s decision so awful? The Legislature tried to craft a law that would apply only to Terri’s situation, but has instead created a policy that will have far-reaching consequences for all the state’s citizens.

Sadly, most people do not have living wills or other documents that state in writing who should make decisions for them or what they would want if they should fall into a permanent coma or be unable to communicate. Under the new law, every person in Florida who does not have a living will is now in a situation where a spouse’s decision to remove artificial feeding can be challenged.

But there is nothing medically special about feeding tubes — and the legal challenges will not stop there. Parents or siblings will now have more legal authority to override the decision of a spouse to stop kidney dialysis, ventilators or any form of medical technology that can maintain physiological function in someone who is dying or unable to think.

Try to get the Florida legislature to vote for statewide health insurance — they’ll call that socialism and too expensive. But they don’t hesitate to tell you what treatment you can or can’t have; the costs are your problem. mjh

”The right to ask questions, debate, and dissent is under attack. The drums of war are beaten ever louder in an attempt to drown out those who speak of our predicament in stark terms.

”Even in the Senate, our history and tradition of being the world’s greatest deliberative body is being snubbed.” — Robert Byrd

”[I]t is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship. …[T]he people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.” — Hermann Goering