Letter to the Editor

Your view: Stop the judiciary

Thursday, April 21, 2005

I could not disagree more with the editorial you published (from Springfield) regarding the correctness of the judiciary in dealing with the Terri Schaivo issue. The editorial noted that Judge Greer is a dedicated Christian, a conservative Republican, and that he was merely following the law the way it is written.

All of these things may be true of Judge Greer. I did not sit in his courtroom and hear all of the arguments that led him to rule that Terri would not have wished to be kept alive. He may have been correct in that particular ruling. However, when he refused to honor a Congressional subpoena, he crossed the line. It was nothing more than judicial arrogance. It is not up to him to decide whether or not Congress should have been involved. That decision rests with the voters. He should be held in contempt of Congress.

Speaking of Florida law, the legislature passed a law to save Terri once. Whether is was the right thing to do or not should have been up to the voters in Florida, not the arrogance Florida Supreme Court. Even though there is nothing at all in the Florida state Constitution that forbade such a law, they claimed it violated the "separation of powers." What a joke! There is no true separation of powers anymore. The judiciary reigns supreme. They no longer interpret legislation, they legislate from the bench. How dare anyone disagree with a judge's decision! How dare the Florida lawmakers pass a law that would override a judge's ruling! The judicial branch has usurped authority and must be challenged.

Jeb Bush should have ordered the state police to reinsert the feeding tube and ignored the Florida Supreme court's ruling. Yes, I said that. The judicial branch is the only entity which gave the judicial branch the final say so in all matters. They are only human beings, not philosopher kings with divine wisdom on how to rule the populace. They are merely personal bias, philosophies, and opinions which influence their rulings, it is impossible to be totally objective. They must be held accountable, too.

If local police would have wrongfully resisted the state police to defend Judge Greer's ruling, so be it. Jeb Bush could have even called out the National Guard if need be. Former Alabama Governor Fob James threatened to call out the National Guard to keep the Ten Commandments on the wall of an Alabama courtroom, in defiance of a court order to remove them. Guess what, they stayed on the wall!

If the Florida state police would have favored Judge Greer and arrested Jeb Bush for contempt of court, then President Bush could have granted him a Presidential pardon. In fact, President Bush should have issued an executive order and ordered federal marshals to arrest Judge Greer himself!

Most will say that one severely disabled woman was not worth creating a constitutional crisis and causing a standoff, even bloodshed, amongst our law enforcement officials. I say that no one wants to see this type of confrontation, but there may be no other way someday in the future, sadly. If the status quo is allowed to remain, then we are condemned to live forever under a tyrannical judicial branch who tells us how we can live, work and play, and even what we can say in public.

Many say that electing a conservative President and Congress is the only answer to changing the nature of the judiciary. It hasn't worked in the past. If you don't believe me, look at how O'Connor, Kennedy, Stevens, and Souter vote on the Supreme Court. They were all nominated by Republican Presidents.

The only way to confront the judiciary appears to be for the legislation and executives to begin to ignore court rulings if they are outrageous. This will take guts, and it will cost many everything in the beginning, just like it cost Roy Moore his job for defying a federal court order.

Finally, I'm glad to see Representative Tom DeLay standing up to the judiciary. I wish all of our lawmakers had the courage to stand up and do what is right.

Unapologetically, Scott Coatney