Judicial Homicide: “This is not a Death – It’s a Killing”

By: Mary Mostert, Banner of Liberty (www.bannerofliberty.com)

March 31, 2005

Terri Schiavo’s personal battle is over. The battle between the Judiciary and the People of the United States has just begun. Jesse Jackson put the issue on the table as: “This is not a Death. It’s a Killing.” Does the Judiciary actually have the right to do that?

In Terri’s last days we seem to have watched a sudden realignment of opinions that have shattered the definition of “liberal” and “conservative.” We find America’s Jesse Jackson, a black “liberal,” making perhaps one of the strongest stands of his career on the side of a dying white woman as he urged black members of the Florida Legislature to stand with him in support of Terri’s right to live.

On the other hand, we find a majority on the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, usually thought to be a “conservative” court, ruling that the issue at hand was not life but “the legitimate exercise of judicial power.” Judge Stanley F. Birch , appointed in 1990 by President H.W. Bush, declared the law passed by Congress and signed by President George W. Bush (Public Law 109-3) allowing Federal Court review of Florida Court’s decision to withhold food and water from Terri to be “unconstitutional.”

On what grounds, you might ask? On the grounds that the “legislative and executive branches of our government” with passage of Terri’s law, (Public Law 109-3) were “demonstrably at odds with our Founding Fathers’ blueprint for the governance of a free people – our Constitution.” Birch stated “I conclude that Pub. L. 109-3 (“the Act”) 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.”

Birch referenced “precedents in the law, specifically Rooker-Feldman. Since I had never HEARD of Rooker-Feldman I looked it up. It is an obscure 1923 U.S. Supreme Court decision on a case between a William Rooker and The Fidelity Trust Company that states: “The District Court was of opinion that the suit was not within its jurisdiction as defined by Congress, and on that ground dismissed the bill.”

In his dissent Judge Gerald Tjoflat observed, on pages 28-29 of the decision Terri’s law “is not a case of Congress ‘arrogating’ power to itself” but instead is Congress prescribing “a particular approach to a particular problem in the general domain of federal jurisdiction, without presuming to dictate – in any respect – our performance of a court’s essential function: ‘so say what the law is.’” Judge Tjoflat would have granted rehearing the entire case since “a plausible claim that the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment requires clear and convincing evidence of an individuals wishes before a state court may order withdrawal of life-sustaining nutrition, hydration and other medical attention.”

So, what have we just witnessed in the death of Terri Schindler? Judge George Greer totally ignored what Congress said. That is the OPPOSITE to Rooker-Feldman, since IT was based on Congress NOT passing a law.

For ten years George Greer, a PROBATE judge in Florida, has consistently maintained dictatorial control over Terri Schiavo. We have witnessed even little children being arrested for trying to carry a class of water to Terri. Why? What law was ever passed to forbid food and water to handicapped people? The 1949 Geneva Convention specifically REQUIRES that food and water be given to prisoners of war, including terrorists. vIn April 2000, Michael ordered Terri moved from the nursing home that had been her home for six years to the Hospice, a place of dying, where Michael’s attorney, George Felos, was Chairman of the Board. World Net Daily reported that a year later, Judge Greer ORDERED her feeding tube disconnected and

“when her brother and sister came by with a spoon and a cup of pudding, asking a nurse to try to feed her by mouth. The nurse refused and reported the request to others. When Schiavo found out he demanded that Bobby and Suzanne be removed from the list of approved visitors, and Greer rubberstamped his request.

"We were trying to play by the rules," Bobby told WorldNetDaily. "But that didn't matter. We were kicked off the list anyway."

Terri went 60 hours without food or water before a different judge issued an emergency stay because new evidence had come to light, and her feeding was resumed. She died almost exactly 5 years later with Felos leading the legal battle to withhold food and water from Terri. Two years ago, Felos had already been paid over $400,000 out of Terri’s $1 million malpractice award. Bobby and Suzanne had visitation rights reinstated only on condition that they would not try to spoon feed their sister. Greer was reported to have said: "I don't want anyone trying to feed that girl!" In 2003 Judge Greer rejected a request by Robert and Mary Schindler asking that their daughter be allowed an eight-week trial of speech, occupational and physical therapy to teach Terri to swallow food so she could be spoon-fed once the feeding tube is removed.”

The Declaration of Independence upon which this nation was built, states that our unalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness was given by “our Creator.” The Constitution of the United States declares “The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour…” When their behavior is not “good” judges can be impeached by the representatives of the people, the same as presidents.

In 1861 it took a Civil War to reverse the U.S. Supreme Court Dred Scott decision, that declared people of African descent were not real people or citizens under the U.S. Constitution. How fitting it is that Jesse Jackson, a black man, in a last minute effort tried to rally black legislators in Florida to support a white woman’s right to food and water and life! Terri didn’t just die. Unelected judges in defiance of the US Constitution and the elected representatives of the people ordered her death.

Mary Mostert is the author of books on the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. See:THE BANNER OF LIBERTY BOOK SERIES