The Battle Lines are Clear Today

Theocracy on one side and Rule of Law on the other. The Terri Schiavo case has very much sharpened the perception of what the two sides contending in this nation today really want.

Tom DeLay's office released this statement to the Press today. From U. S. Newswire

DeLay Statement on Terri Schiavo.
To: National Desk
Contact: Dan Allen or Shannon Flaherty, 202-225-4000, both for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay

SUGAR LAND, Texas, March 31 /U.S. Newswire/ -- House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) today released the following statement mourning the passing of Terri Schiavo:

"Mrs. Schiavo's death is a moral poverty and a legal tragedy. This loss happened because our legal system did not protect the people who need protection most, and that will change. The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior, but not today. Today we grieve, we pray, and we hope to God this fate never befalls another. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Schindlers and with Terri Schiavo's friends in this time of deep sorrow."
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Yesterday one of the Federal Appeals Judges, Judge Birch (a conservative Bush I appointee) wrote a concurrence on the 11th Circuit Court's latest denial of the Schindler's request that included the following statement:

In resolving the Schiavo controversy it is my judgment that, despite sincere and altruistic motivation, the legislative and executive branches of our government have acted in a manner demonstrably at odds with our Founding Fathers' blueprint for the governance of a free people - our Constitution. Since I have sworn, as have they, to uphold and defend that Covenant, I must respectfully concur in the denial of the request for rehearing en banc.

I conclude that ["Terri's Law"] is unconstitutional and, therefore, this court and the district court are without jurisdiction in this case under that special Act and should refuse to exercise any jurisdiction that we may otherwise have in this case. (Emphasis added.)
...
The separation of powers implicit in our constitutional design was created "to assure, as nearly as possible, that each branch of government would confine itself to its assigned responsibility." But when the fervor of political passions moves the Executive and the Legislative branches to act in ways inimical to basic constitutional principles, it is the duty of the judiciary to intervene. If sacrifices to the independence of the judiciary are permitted today, precedent is established for the constitutional transgressions of tomorrow. (Emphasis in original.)

[Note: While the original source of the above concurrence is found on the referenced Findlaw.com site, it is a PDF file and I could not do a copy and paste. I therefore copied these quoted items from Daily Kos.]
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The New York Times also reports the court decision, describing Judge birch as having rebuked President Bush and the Congress for their Unconstitutional action in passing Terri's Law. Then they went on to explain why Judge Birch decided that the law was unconstitutional:

... a provision of the new law requiring a fresh federal review of all the evidence presented in the case made it unconstitutional. Because that provision constitutes "legislative dictation of how a federal court should exercise its judicial functions," he wrote, it "invades the province of the judiciary and violates the separation of powers principle."
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My take on this:

Tom DeLay thinks the Schiavo decisions were immoral, and threatens the legal system for its decisions, while a noted Constitutional scholar states that the actions of the Congress and President were Unconstitutional. Judge Birch in the last line above points out the real danger in what Terri's Law attempted to do.

DeLay wants this nation run according to his morality as a Theocracy, and Judge birch wants it to continue to be run by the Constitution, the separation of powers the Constitution establishes, and under the Rule of Law in which the Constitution is the basic law.

I go with Judge Birch, the Courts, the U.S. Constitution and the Rule of Law. That has worked here for over two centuries. Theocracy is currently failing in much of the Middle East. We don't want it tried here in the twenty-first century.