Excellent article.

[gridlore]

No matter where you stand on the Terry Schiavo case, you have to worry about the raw power grab by Congress in interfering in a state court ruling. Here's a good article on the subject:

Power abused, democracy corrupted
By Howard Troxler
St. Petersburg Times, March 21, 2005

The end justifies the means.

When you have enough power, you can tell the courts to get lost, you can overrule the self-government of an entire state, you can obliterate the rule of law.

It does not matter that Florida's courts ruled that Terri Schiavo expressed the wish not to kept alive artificially. We are entitled to ignore court rulings.

Neither does it matter that the doctors say that her brain has largely turned to fluid. We may dismiss these facts with a wave of the hand, or a sound bite on CNN.

Congress knows all. The federal government knows all. The strutting Tom DeLay and the unctuous Bill Frist know more than all the judges and doctors combined.

They are cynically armed with their internal memo about how many votes they are going to get out of the Christians. Some members of Congress speechified without knowing how to pronounce Terri Schiavo's name, or the most basic facts.

Tom DeLay's conduct is odious. He represents everything bad about Congress. His principal pastime is raising large amounts of money from wicked people in return for hurting the public good.

The notion that Tom DeLay of Texas is entitled to usurp Florida's rule of law with the claim of being morally superior is akin to Bill Clinton coming down to lecture us on marital fidelity.

On top of that, anyone in the way of these half-witted bombasts is a devil. It is not possible that Michael Schiavo might actually believe he is doing what Terri wanted - no. He is a murderer. It is not possible Judge George Greer actually made what he thought was the correct legal decision - he is "merciless."

If you are cheering because Congress acted in the midnight hour to "save" Terri, be sure of what you are cheering for.

You are applauding a Congress for throwing out the rulings of the courts, throwing out the due process of the states, and substituting its own will.

The difference between me and so-called "conservatives" is that when I say the power of government is a dangerous beast to be feared, I actually mean it.

Let me ask you a question.

Let's say that the next president is... Hillary Rodham Clinton.

I know, I know. But just say.

Do you also believe that ol' Hil should have the power to wipe out the rulings of the courts and the states, with the wave of her magic wand?

No?

Then maybe you are clinging to a very foolish belief. Maybe you believe that the government will trample over the courts only when you agree. Well, good luck.

There was an Englishman named Thomas More. He is most famous for refusing to approve Henry VIII's divorce, and paying for his principles with his head.

In the play about More's life titled A Man for All Seasons, More debates a character named Roper, who wants to ignore the law to fight evil:

Roper: So now you'd give the devil the benefit of law?

More: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the devil?

Roper: I'd cut down every tree in England to do that.

More: Oh, and when the last law was down and the devil turned on you where would you hide, Roper, all the laws being flat? This country is planted thick with laws from coast to coast, man's laws not God's, and if you cut them down - and you're just the man to do it - do you really think that you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the devil the benefit of the law, for my own safety's sake.

For the sake of headlines and self-righteousness, the U.S. Congress waited until the final seconds of a years-long, agonizing legal process to say that our law does not count. Many well-meaning people are cheering. And so one more tree falls.

Comments

[bunyip.livejournal.com]

Very good article.

[nsingman.livejournal.com]

A very good article, but I'm afraid that most of the people who will nod their heads in agreement don't really believe it. On this particular issue, it's the political left who are crowing (and rightly, I believe) about conservative hypocrisy on state prerogatives being usurped by the federal government. So much for being supporters of the 10th Amendment.

However, those same leftists have a rather lengthy record of supporting federal intrusion into state and individual prerogatives. Virtually every aspect of the New Deal and Great Society programs are and were contrary to the federal constitution. So is federal spending on education. And so was the Roe v Wade decision (and I'm a pro-choice libertarian). Where was their outrage then? They're rather late to the party, I think, and they'll be gone as soon as the next opportunity to vote for more federal dollars for a pet program arises.

[aurictech.livejournal.com]

Quite frankly, the ongoing (30+ years) power grab by the judiciary worries me more than any act of Congress.