Of Ends And Unconstitutional Means

By J. J. Jackson

March 20, 2005

I have hated to deal with the Terri Schiavo case and readers will know that I have avoided talking about it for a long time despite many requests for my opinion.  The appeals and all the wailing, moaning and half truths from ALL sides of the issue made me loath to discuss a case that makes Conservatives turn into Liberals with every word they speak.  I swear, this is the only time I am going to bore you with an editorial about Terri Schiavo and even this dissertation has gone through 20 or so iterations as I put my thoughts down.  And I am going to treat this issue the same way I treat abortion; if you don’t like my opinion I don’t care so don’t even try to get into a pissing contest with me over it.

 I have avoided talking about it previously for several reasons.  First and foremost is that  no matter what we think about this case it is so muddied that the "truth" is not going to be known unless Terri wakes up with full memory and can tell us.  I don't care if you are militantly for saving Terri's life or militantly for letting her die.  If you come before me and try to argue that you know the "facts" I am going to laugh at you.  The second most important reason is because what I want to happen conflicts with my vow to defend the Constitution and the wording and powers thereof.

The propaganda from both sides is so thick and so over the top that it makes me nauseous.  The family of Terri and the supporters of her husband have both resorted to spin that would make many of our Marxist politicians proud.  Each side has “experts” that say exactly the opposite of the “experts“ for the other side.  And each side ignores the existence of the other side’s “experts”.  Don’t you just love our judicial system?

Terri's husband is scum.  I wont pull any punches by saying that.  In fact I will say it again.  Terri’s husband is scum.  

This is a man that started off talking about how much he loved his wife and used his "dedication" to her as a launching pad to get a nice chunk of money for his pocket.  This is a man that while professing his love for Terri was off shacking up with another woman.  This is a man that after winning his cash prize moved to end all rehab, have her feeding tube removed and have her memory put permanently into the past.  This is a man that suddenly remembered his wife making an obscure statement while watching a movie about how she would not want to be left alive on life support (and by the way, a feeding tube IS life support).  

Whether or not she actually made the statement I do not know.  It is possible that he conveniently forgot the comment to get a cash settlement.  It is equally possible that he made it up after the fact to provide an excuse to have his wife killed.  It is still equally possible that after the therapy his wife did receive and years in the hospital Michael Schiavo decided that it just was no longer worth it which the laws allow him to do.

But he is still scum because of the way he failed to honor his vows of marriage, if for no other reasons.

Terri's family has fought him tooth and nail at times resorted to half truths about what some videos show and superimpose their impressions and desires upon those images making assertions that cannot possibly be verified by looking at the videos without such commentary.  I have watched them time and time again and they are inconclusive at best often times resorting to claims of what is happening rather than actually showing what is happening for some odd reason.  They talk about the horrors of starvation.  They talk about how it is not Terri's will to have her life ended.  They have even hurled many allegations at a sitting judge that have yet to be proven which is despicable.

This has lead to legislatures and governors attempting to pass laws, after the fact, and against anything that our legal system believes in to try and stop the death of Terri.  We have politicians grandstanding about how they must act with a law to save Terri's life and throwing out the concept of no "ex post facto Law shall be passed" (Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution).

I think that last straw is what really rubs my nerves raw the most about this entire case; the after the fact attempts at protective legislation that is.  And I cringe each time I have to read that section of the United States Constitution because it prevents me from promoting the outcome that I really desire which is to have Terri’s life spared and given to the care of her family.

Both sides have had their days in court.  Far too many days in court if you ask me.  And after all that a legislature that doesn't like the decision tries to go back and over turn the judicial decision.  Somewhere there needs to be a realization that the separation of powers argument applies to ALL branches of government.  Those of us on the "right" often complain and moan about activist judiciaries that rewrite the law passed by the legislatures.  But it seems to me that most of those same people are now dangerously all too gung-ho to let an activist legislature rewrite a court decision already based on existing law.  That, my friends, is a dangerous legal precedent to set.

And despite what Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity and other prominent right of center commentators say, it is not the right legal precedent to set.  I understand and empathize with their position because, well, Michael Schiavo is in my opinion scum.

Did I mention that the man is scum?  Ok, yeah, I just did.  I want to make sure I am on the record correctly saying so before many of my conservative readers start sending in hate mail that my liberal readers are so famous for.

It's all very odd; from all sides.  And this entire case basically hinges upon whether or not Terri ever made comments to the effect of whether or not she would want to be kept alive in such a circumstance.  The problem is that there was no legal requirement for her to have put such a wish into writing in order to be legally binding at the time this case came forth.  And there is little to prove that she ever uttered such a sentiment to her husband who is scum by the way incase you missed my mentioning that earlier.

And quite frankly my opinions on this are unpopular among many that consider themselves “conservatives” to one extent or another.  I don't agree that Terri Schiavo should be allowed to die based on what we know for certain.  However at the same time there is no law to prevent such except for these ex post facto ones currently being attempted by the United States Congress and previously by the Florida legislature.

However I also think the family and doctors lie when they don’t need to lie.  You don’t need to lie to me about starvation to yank at my heart strings because I had a father in law starve to death because of cancer that prevented him from eating.  And I know that he died peacefully and without much, if any pain.  So don’t lie to me.  I don’t need that.  It hurts your case in my eyes because it shows me that you are just like the man you claim will say anything to kill his wife; Michael Schiavo.

I don't agree that Terri Schiavo should be allowed to die because the only real evidence that she wanted such a fate is a he said she said conversation between her and her husband.  I don't agree that Terri Schiavo should be allowed to die because even I believe that with proper therapy there is hope for her to partially recover.  However the court has spoken.  And the court has, whether you or I like it or not, based it's decision on the facts, opinions and allegations placed before it.  And it has based it’s decision on the laws as they exist and have existed.  And these laws allow this course of action.

Letting the legislature step in is not the answer.  The legislature stepping in and passing a law to protect Terri violates the concept of no “after the fact” laws being passed and then applied to current cases before the court.  It is akin to someone going out and planting daisies in their yard and then having the legislature pass a new law after the act was committed making the act punishable by death, charging the man with a crime, convicting him and then executing him.  That is not what our society of laws is based upon.

People also complain about Judge Greer and about how he has an agenda that involves his desire to kill Terri; about how he is a renegade justice.  Then I say impeach him and get him the heck off the bench!  And after you impeach him for not acting in good behavior get the case before a new judge.  There are methods in place to deal with judges who think they can subvert the law so use them!  Yet they have not been taken.  Why?  Because there is no legal basis for such an action.  If there was, it would have been taken.

But if we set a precedent here that passing a law to handle a case already placed before the courts for the specific purpose of affecting the outcome of that case, it violates the very foundation of our laws.  Please don’t make me cite the Constitution again.  The United States Constitution Article I, Section 8, says, “No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.”

Our history as Americans is filled with many evils that have had to be corrected.  Slavery was and is wrong but for a long time the law allowed it.  Women were denied the rights of all free men, but for many years the law allowed such injustices to exist.  But what we did was we amended the laws and corrected them and moved on while resigning our selves to punishing those that violated the new laws after they were passed.  What we did not do was free the slaves and then go back and charge plantation owners with the crime of enslaving men for the 200 years BEFORE the laws were passed.

Now is not the time to destroy that procedure.  The procedure is not perfect.  No law or rule of man ever is for we are men; not God.  But we do have laws to live by and we cannot simply pick and chose to ignore them on a whim.  Make it a requirement in the future that such directives as those Michael Schiavo claims Terri made are required to be in writing or at least witnessed by more than a scumbag of a husband.

If it were up to me, I would like to see Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube remain in and her rehabilitation begin.  I would then hope that her rehabilitation would enable her to tell us what her actual desires were with regards to being kept alive in such a manner.  If Terri “woke up” and said that her husband was scum and that he lied, then Michael Schiavo should be put away for as long as the law allowed for attempted murder.  That said, however, I have to be consistent.  If Terri “woke up” and confirms that she did indeed say that her husband had not lied about her wishes and that she had indeed said to not keep her alive, then her family that fought tooth and nail to prevent her wishes from being carried out should be locked up for interfering and filing frivolous lawsuits.

Unfortunately, it is not up to me.  There are many things that are not up to me because the Constitution says certain things are not allowed or are allowed.  I don’t like the 16th Amendment but by the same token I don’t refuse to pay my taxes because I think it is wrong.

Terri Schiavo’s condition is an unfortunate circumstance of a flawed system.  Sounds clinical and sterile doesn’t it?  I hate calling her situation an “unfortunate circumstance”.  But that is the best I can do after a thorough soul search of my own beliefs and a detailed analysis of this case.

But one thing our system is has shown throughout our history is that it can be changed for good, and often for bad as well.  I will use the case of Terri Schiavo to promote a change in the system for good but I will not support an ex post facto and unconstitutional violation of the separation of powers to get what I and many others desire and change our society for the worse.  Sorry, conservatives, but we either believe in the Constitution or we do not.  And sometimes we have to grit our teeth, move forward, and make sure that the problem doesn’t happen again.

Laus Deo and may God have mercy on Terri’s soul.

Related Articles:

First Abortion - Is Euthanasia Next Part 2  03/11/05

First Abortion - Is Euthanasia Next  03/09/05

Terri Schiavo- Why the Rush to Put Her to Death? 03/04/05

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