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Statement on
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APPELLATE COURT JOINS DISTRICT COURT IN REFUSING FULL HEARING FOR TERRI SCHIAVO’S RIGHTS MANDATED BY CONGRESS Text of 11th Circuit panel decision The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals panel has ruled 2-1 that Terri Schiavo’s slow death by starvation must continue, without interruption to allow the fresh consideration of her rights in a de novo federal court proceeding as mandated by Congress. An appeal is under way. Subsequently, the full Court voted 10-2 against re-hearing the panel decision. An appeal to Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy who has responsibility for 11th Circuit is underway. Meanwhile, the Florida Senate voted down legislation creating a stricter standard for withholding food and fluids that might have protected Terri. “The appellate court ruling is another in a series of acts of raw judicial power, determined to end the life of Terri Schiavo regardless of the rule of law or the norms of justice, but her fight for life is not yet over,” said Burke Balch, J.D., Director of the Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics at the National Right to Life Committee. ‘The courts’ rulings refusing to allow Terri to be fed while a full trial is conducted in federal court flout the clear intent of Congress,” Balch said. As the Bush Administration brief to the Court of Appeal pointed out, “Congress intended that the district court take a complete and fresh look at federal constitutional and statutory claims before Theresa Schiavo is allowed to die.... The courts should be given an opportunity to fully consider all the claims Appellants seek to raise with the care, dignity, and orderly procedure that are required by a proper respect for the interests at stake and for Congress, which enacted new legislation specifically to afford a full opportunity to address those interests.”
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Bush Administration Brief DESPITE FEDERAL LAW, JUDGE WHITTEMORE DENIES STAY, CONDEMNS TERRI TO DEATH NATIONAL RIGHT TO LIFE DENOUNCES ABUSE OF JUDICIAL POWER Judge James D. Whittemore has ruled, in effect, that Terri Schiavo may not receive the federal court hearing mandated by Congressional passage of the Federal Terri’s law. Claiming that she has no “probability of success on the merits,” Whittemore denied any stay of the state court’s starvation/dehydration order during further proceedings in federal court. The denial of stay must immediately be appealed to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. “Judge Whittemore has engaged in a gross abuse of judicial power,” said Burke J. Balch, J.D., Director of the Powell Center for Medical Ethics of the National Right to Life Committee. “Giving not even the slightest deference to an Act of Congress, without even allowing time for meaningful legal argument or consideration of evidence, Whittemore has ruled that Terri Schiavo’s death sentence must be carried out. Unless higher courts issue a stay on appeal, an innocent young woman will be denied what every mass murderer convicted in state court gets – her day in federal court.” Early on Monday, March 21, by a vote of 203-58, the House approved the bipartisan compromise Federal Terri's Bill, after Senate had approved it by unanimous consent. The President immediately signed it. U.S. House of Representatives roll call vote on passage of the final compromise "Terri's Law" --March 21, 2005 Text of Compromise Federal Terri's Law The legislation will allow the Schindler’s to obtain federal court review, anew, of all the factual and legal issues that bear on Terri Schindler-Schiavo’s rights under the U.S. Constitution and federal law. Statement by President George W. Bush Background:
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