Executive Power Revisited

The Supreme Court won't force the federal courts to do their duty in Terri's case.  What we have now is the perfect constitutional storm. 

The elective branches of both the Florida and the federal government have declared that Terri Schiavo cannot properly be killed without a new, more competent review of the facts that bear on her case.  The judiciary, both state and federal, has decided to thumb its collective nose at our representatives and, by extension, at us. 

In 2003 the Florida legislature passed and Governor Bush signed a law giving the governor the power to take custody of persons in Terri's situation and ensure that they receive proper nutrition and hydration.  The Florida Supreme Court found that law unconstitutional on perfectly spurious grounds. 

The legislature and the governor say the governor has the power to take charge of Terri Schiavo.  The courts say that power is theirs alone.  The only reason to accept the courts' view is that they say we should.  A more ridiculous example of circular reasoning is impossible to imagine. 

The Florida courts are outvoted two to one by the other branches of government.  Governor Bush has a sacred duty to arrive at his own conclusions about the scope of his authority and act to use that authority in accord with his own judgment and conscience.  Court orders and judicial decisions be damned.

In 2000 Jeb Bush was on a collision course with his rogue judiciary over the presidential election.  He didn't have to assert his power to certify a final result in Florida regardless of the judiciary's extra-legal recounts.  The U.S. Supreme Court short circuited the conflict.  This time, it seems, nobody is going to help Jeb spank a wayward judiciary; it all comes down to him.

Governor Bush is the executive charged with exercising Florida's police power.  Whatever happens in Terri's case is on his head.  Let's hope he is suitably aware of his burden.

That said, President Bush could help his brother out if he chose to.  The federal courts have refused to obey the law and keep Terri alive long enough to perform the task Congress assigned to them just last week.  As is the case in Florida, the judiciary is outvoted two to one by the other branches of government. 

The president doesn't need a court order to see to it that the laws are faithfully executed.  That's what President Bush swore to do in his oath of office. 

Terri Schiavo is the subject of an ongoing federal case.  If she dies the case will be mooted and the purpose of the law Congress just passed will be frustrated.  It would be entirely within the power of the President to order that the Department of Justice take Terri into protective custody and ensure that she is fed so that the federal courts have time to do their statutory duty. 

Gut check time boys.  Nobody ever said it would be easy to be a Bush. 

Comments

[nicholas martin]

Tip of the iceberg ?

I just received private information ( and the source will not be revealed at this time, however I urge everyone to verify this independently ) that there are hundreds, if not thousands of cases similar to Terry Schiavo's. The only differenc is that these people are old, and in retirement homes, where they are simply starved and dehydrated.

While we hope for Terry, her case MUST be the start of a serious investigation into these other cases as well.

Until Newt Gingrich's appearance on the scene ( 1994 ? was it ? ) liberal judges went completely unopposed by the republicans. Now we have a horde of crazed activist judges in the service of the culture of death. ( we would not be making too much of a mistake if we used terms like Satan for that. )
In spite of the valiant efforts and magnificent results of the bloggers, to whom we owe immmeasurable gratitude, the MSM still controls and runs the nation. The media, the campuses, the judiciary and secondary education ( public schools ) are the main power bases of distorted liberalism today.

The media has been attacked by the bloggers; David Horowitz is doing a great job with his crusade against campus leftwingism and leftwingism in general ( it is worthwile to look into his Discoverthenetwork accessible from frontpagemag.com I only wish to insist on one aspect of marxism that does not seem to be sufficiently noticed and analyzed by others: marxism is capable of destroying the healthy instincts of a nation over a period of time. Recovery from that, as Solzhenytsin has implicitly stated, can take many years, Solzhenytsin's estimate in the case of the ex Soviet Union is 300 years !!! )

The judiciary...no serious attacks yet. And the public school system, which generates masses of undereducated and partially indoctrinated people, Bork's "New Barbarians", still goes largely unchallenged. Scholarly work is abundant ( e.g. Michael Gross ), but there is a need for action.

Ann Coulter is calling for action too, just like Mr. Mulhern - in the Terry Schiavo case. We must have the moral courage to act. The elected republican politicians do not seem to have the courage to act. We have to reassure them somehow that a lot of people are backing them indeed ! Some republicans are downright liberals, it so seems, others do not seem to want to carry through. One wonders why is that so. The Alaska drilling vote barely went through, 51-49, with 55 republican senators.
I hope that a lot of people are reading Mr. Mulhern's columns. I wish our republican senators were on the readers' list. It would do them a lot of good.

[Luciferous]

Hate to say it but the only way I see this unfoldoing favorably is Jeb Bush using his police power to take custody of Terry and somehow insulate her from further attack. That job done, he would conduct a fierce and thorough fact finding campaign to document the judicial perfidy involved, sharply present how to prevent a repetition, and announce he will resign as governor.

[TomC]

Gut check time? Jeb has been paying a lot of attention to that gut, television adds ten pounds. He's now polishing the speech he will give after they bury her, working on that deep, commanding voice that the media consultant told him was so effective with women, practicing wiping that single tear, then raising his eyes toward heaven...

Any possibility that Jeb might continue the Bush presidential dynasty will die if Terri dies.