Supreme Court Won't Hear Schiavo Case
from sfgate
By HOPE YEN
The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to order Terri Schiavo's feeding tube reinserted, rejecting a desperate appeal by her parents to keep their severely brain-damaged daughter alive.
The decision, announced in a terse one-page order, marked the end of a dramatic and disheartening four-day dash for her parents, Bob and Mary Schlindler, through the federal court system.
Justices did not explain their decision, which was at least the fifth time they have declined to get involved in the Schiavo case.
There was no indication of how the individual justices voted.
The feeding tube that has been keeping Schiavo alive at a hospice in Pinellas Park, Fla., was removed last Friday. Doctors at the time said that unless it is reinserted she will die in a week or two.
The Schindlers are continuing legal fights in federal and state courts in Florida, but the Supreme Court appeal was considered their best chance of getting her tube reconnected.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who was a principal figure in the last-ditch effort by Congress to intervene on Schiavo's behalf, said he the high court rendered its decision "despite a compelling case for reexamination of the medical evidence."
"It is a sad day for her loving family and for their innocent and voiceless daughter," said the Tennessee Republican who played a key role in securing passage of legislation last weekend to give her parents access to the federal courts.
The high court's decision was the latest in a string of losses in state and federal courts for the Schindlers, who say their 41-year-old daughter faces an unjust and imminent death based on a decision by her husband to halt nourishment without proof of her consent.
The Schindlers' emergency high court filing also argued that Congress intended for Schiavo's tube to be reinserted, at least temporarily, when it passed an extraordinary bill last weekend giving federal courts authority to fully review her case.
In his response, Michael Schiavo urged justices not to intervene because his wife's case already has been endlessly litigated and at each turn courts have sided with him.
His filing also argued that Congress violated the Constitution when it passed the bill because the action was improperly intended to overturn state court rulings on the matter.
"That is not an exercise of legislative power, but trial by legislature," the filing said.
The Schindlers' appeal went first to Justice Anthony Kennedy, a Reagan appointee who has staked a moderate position on social issues. Kennedy has responsibility in the first instance for cases emanating from the Southern district that is home to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. He referred the Schiavo case to the full nine-member court.
The court's decision was not surprising. Not only had justices repeatedly declined to intervene in the Schiavo case on prior occasions, but they routinely defer to state courts on family law issues. Judges in various Florida courts have sided with Schiavo's husband in the 15 years since she suffered brain damage.
The issue before the high court was whether Schiavo's tube should be reinserted while her case is fully reviewed in the lower courts.
Justices could have ruled in favor of the parents if they had found a "substantial likelihood" the Schindlers would win on the merits or that Congress intended for Schiavo to remain attached to a feeding tube during the federal court review called for in the bill passed last weekend.
The court could also have sided with the parents if, as the Justice Department argued in a "statement of interest" in the case, a federal law known as the All Writs Act were interpreted to empower federal courts to temporarily grant the emergency request — regardless of the merits of the case — simply to protect their "jurisdiction."
The federal appellate court in Atlanta rejected those claims earlier Wednesday.
A three-judge panel ruled 2-1 that the parents "failed to demonstrate a substantial case on the merits of any of their claims" that Schiavo's feeding tube should be reinserted immediately. About 13 hours later, the full 12-member court voted to deny the parents' request to reconsider the ruling.
"It would be very difficult for Justice Kennedy or the full court to justify granting a stay compelling reinsertion after the full 11th Circuit denied a rehearing and where the basis for changing the status quo is so problematic," Laurence Tribe, a Harvard constitutional law professor, said before the court ruled.
The Supreme Court has ruled that a terminally ill person in a "persistent vegetative state" has a right to refuse life-sustaining treatment. But the 5-4 decision authored by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist also said that right was not unrestricted, holding that a state may impose a high legal burden on a family to show a patient had actually consented.
That 1990 ruling returned the case of Nancy Cruzan to Missouri state court, which eventually determined the comatose woman indeed had indicated she wanted to die as her parents argued.
Re: Supreme Court Won't Hear Schiavo Case
Good! I can't wait to see all those holy rollers crying when she snuffs it. Seeing those people with the red tape over their mouths with "life" writen on it makes me ill. I wish I could tape their noses shut too!
Re: Supreme Court Won't Hear Schiavo Case
Re: Supreme Court Won't Hear Schiavo Case
If I were her, I would want to die,even if it were wasting away like that.
Of course,the very nature of that statement was retarded.
Re: Supreme Court Won't Hear Schiavo Case
Reality is.......she has been dead over a decade.
Re: Supreme Court Won't Hear Schiavo Case
Glad to see you read the sticky :-D
Re: Supreme Court Won't Hear Schiavo Case
Talk about a ball and cup game.
American public = served.
Re: Supreme Court Won't Hear Schiavo Case
The way I see it is she married someone who is opposed to the way her parents see the world , gee I wonder why?
Re: Supreme Court Won't Hear Schiavo Case
i think it's some bullshit,perfect for the times we're in....people are SO stuck n their reality(consensus reality-the everyday me and you) ... but fail to understand that even if she can be here physcially. than on a non-consesus point of view she probally is......but ya know what instead of rightingf a book about quantum physics and the aboriginal "dreaming" i'll just say let the dumb fucks go ahead and kill her........
Re: Supreme Court Won't Hear Schiavo Case
Quote:
Originally Posted by killerkat
i think it's some bullshit,perfect for the times we're in....people are SO stuck n their reality(consensus reality-the everyday me and you) ... but fail to understand that even if she can be here physcially. than on a non-consesus point of view she probally is......but ya know what instead of rightingf a book about quantum physics and the aboriginal "dreaming" i'll just say let the dumb fucks go ahead and kill her........
The woman is alive but yet not living. Basicly all that keeps her alive are machinces, and she has been this way for many years now. The family has now exsosted thier legal battle. As of now all they say they can do now is pray. Sorry to tell this, your daughter ain't coming back. What she was has been a long time now. Nothing more now than a monstrosity of humanity and machines with no soul. Maybe now the poor woman can find some peace, what ever that may be.
Re: Supreme Court Won't Hear Schiavo Case
Quote:
Originally Posted by a_small_death
The woman is alive but yet not living. Basicly all that keeps her alive are machinces, and she has been this way for many years now. The family has now exsosted thier legal battle. As of now all they say they can do now is pray. Sorry to tell this, your daughter ain't coming back. What she was has been a long time now. Nothing more now than a monstrosity of humanity and machines with no soul. Maybe now the poor woman can find some peace, what ever that may be.
i'm fully aware of that......her physical body may be dead, they may be able to prove her brain isn't fuctioning, but can they prove she isn'y there, HELL NO.......no amount of science can go between consencus reality and non-consensus reality.only the mental being can go there......what i'm saying is that even though she may be technicly "dead".....she may have found the sentient nature of being,that death stops life only as much as life stops life...it's just the physical "you" leaving, leaving the big "you" behind...........but unfortanantly, i'd say 98% of people have marginalized there sentient being to the point they what i'm saying won't mean ANYTHING to them what-so-ever........so maybe she didn't know this either, maybe her event coused her to become lucid to her sentient being.....who knows.....but who are we to tell that for her.....hmmmm
but i still end this with fuck it, let the dumb fucks kill the rest of her....
Re: Supreme Court Won't Hear Schiavo Case
If this doesn't show americans have too much time on thier hands I don't know what will
Re: Supreme Court Won't Hear Schiavo Case
Quote:
Originally Posted by a_small_death
If this doesn't show americans have too much time on thier hands I don't know what will
?... what i said ...or the case of the girl?.........
Re: Supreme Court Won't Hear Schiavo Case
Quote:
Originally Posted by killerkat
?... what i said ...or the case of the girl?.........
the case of the girl. people have become so enthrulled with this story no one without a life or job can't stop talking about.
Re: Supreme Court Won't Hear Schiavo Case
So it's ok for insurance companies to decide who gets what treatment and for money to make life or death decisions but not someone’s spouse? There are a lot of people suffering from cancer and other diseases that can't afford proper care and just don't get it. C'mon, why is more value placed on the life of unborn people and brain-dead people when we should at least care about the living as well?
Re: Supreme Court Won't Hear Schiavo Case
Quote:
Originally Posted by killerkat
i'm fully aware of that......her physical body may be dead, they may be able to prove her brain isn't fuctioning, but can they prove she isn'y there, HELL NO.......no amount of science can go between consencus reality and non-consensus reality.only the mental being can go there......what i'm saying is that even though she may be technicly "dead".....she may have found the sentient nature of being,that death stops life only as much as life stops life...it's just the physical "you" leaving, leaving the big "you" behind...........but unfortanantly, i'd say 98% of people have marginalized there sentient being to the point they what i'm saying won't mean ANYTHING to them what-so-ever........so maybe she didn't know this either, maybe her event coused her to become lucid to her sentient being.....who knows.....but who are we to tell that for her.....hmmmm
but i still end this with fuck it, let the dumb fucks kill the rest of her....
Check out my new thread. I only wonder if the dumb fucks realize the type of rage they have now unleashed.
OEC
