[Mb-civic] The New York Times > Opinion > Editorial: A Blow to the Rule of Law

[John Michael Cox, Jr.]

The New York Times
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          March 22, 2005

EDITORIAL


    A Blow to the Rule of Law


If you are in a "persistent vegetative state" and there is a dispute 
about whether to keep you alive, your case will probably go no further 
than state court - unless you are Terri Schiavo. President Bush signed 
legislation yesterday giving Ms. Schiavo's parents a personal right to 
sue in federal court. The new law tramples on the principle that this is 
"a nation of laws, not of men," and it guts the power of the states. 
When the commotion over this one tragic woman is over, Congress and the 
president will have done real damage to the founders' careful plan for 
American democracy.

Ms. Schiavo's case presents heart-wrenching human issues, and difficult 
legal ones. But the Florida courts, after careful deliberation, ruled 
that she would not want to be kept alive by artificial means in her 
current state, and ordered her feeding tube removed. Ms. Schiavo's 
parents, who wanted the tube to remain, hoped to get the Florida 
Legislature to intervene, but it did not do so.

That should have settled the matter. But supporters of Ms. Schiavo's 
parents, particularly members of the religious right, leaned heavily on 
Congress and the White House to step in. They did so yesterday with the 
new law, which gives "any parent of Theresa Marie Schiavo" standing to 
sue in federal court to keep her alive.

This narrow focus is offensive. The founders believed in a nation in 
which, as Justice Robert Jackson once wrote, we would "submit ourselves 
to rulers only if under rules." There is no place in such a system for a 
special law creating rights for only one family. The White House insists 
that the law will not be a precedent. But that means that the right to 
bring such claims in federal court is reserved for people with enough 
political pull to get a law passed that names them in the text.

The Bush administration and the current Congressional leadership like to 
wax eloquent about states' rights. But they dropped those principles in 
their rush to stampede over the Florida courts and Legislature. The new 
law doesn't miss a chance to trample on the state's autonomy and 
dignity. There are a variety of technical legal doctrines the federal 
courts use to show deference to state courts, like "abstention" and 
"exhaustion of remedies." The new law decrees that in Ms. Schiavo's 
case, these well-established doctrines simply will not apply.

Republicans have traditionally championed respect for the delicate 
balance the founders created. But in the Schiavo case, and in the battle 
to stop the Democratic filibusters of judicial nominations, President 
Bush and his Congressional allies have begun to enunciate a new 
principle: the rules of government are worth respecting only if they 
produce the result we want. It may be a formula for short-term political 
success, but it is no way to preserve and protect a great republic.


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